


The Searchers

by YvaJ



Category: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-31
Updated: 2017-01-17
Packaged: 2018-09-13 16:58:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 52,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9133117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YvaJ/pseuds/YvaJ
Summary: As a New Year begins, Willy Wonka along with his friends from the Kinsley Street Children's Home begin to search for the sister he had lost when he was younger.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The Searchers is a sequel to the Christmas story 'Once Like You'. Although it can be read as a stand alone, it contains characters who were introduced in the other story. Although it is not a Christmas story, it does take place at around New Year's Day and is in sync with the passage of the holiday season. I hope that you enjoy this story, it's the first Wonka story that I have completed in a very long time, so I am especially pleased with how it turned out. While it does have Wanda Wonka with an active role, this story is not to be mistaken with my other stories 'Thankfulness' and 'A Christmas Miracle'. 
> 
> Enjoy.

**The Searchers**

A sequel to _‘Once Like You’_  


By: YvaJ

**Chapter 1: Changes**

Willy Wonka awoke on New Year’s Day feeling rejuvenated and happy. He had spent the previous night at the Kinsley Street Children’s Home with the family that had adopted him during the Christmas holidays.

Glancing over, he recognized his girlfriend lying next to him. Melanie Jarvis was sound asleep, her soft, contented, sighs filling the darkened room. He wound a gentle arm around her and pulled her closer to him. When she did not acknowledge his hold or awaken, he smiled as he carefully removed his arm and inched his way out of her hold. Once he had freed himself from the entanglement of limbs, he slid off the bed and left her to sleep.

Finding his clothing neatly draped over a chair, he got dressed, his typically eccentric clothing replacing the set of pajamas he had worn to sleep in. Once he was dressed, he slipped quietly out of the room, down the stairs, and into the parlor. There he found Maggie and Raymond Richardson seated together on the sofa.

The couple was sipping coffee and speaking to one another in hushed tones. At first sight and contrary to all he had done for the home, it appeared as though they were still not out of financial trouble. Instead of immediately speaking, he tapped lightly on the door and waited for one of them to acknowledge his presence.

Maggie was the first to turn around. When her gaze eventually met his, she offered him a warm smile. “Happy New Year, Willy,” she said as her husband offered a reciprocating nod.

“Good morning,” Willy offered in kind. He brushed his hands through his sporadic curly hair as he came over to the sofa and lowered himself onto it. “I hope I’m not disturbing you.”

“No, you’re not, we’re just finishing up,” Maggie said. “Did you sleep well?”

“Yes I did, thank you for asking me to stay,” he said with a cordial nod of his head. “I didn’t anticipate receiving an invite to spend the night, but I suppose it was better and safer for me as opposed to Melanie and me walking back well after midnight.”

“I think it was,” Raymond said. “Especially since there was word on the radio this morning that we got a heavy amount of snow dumped on us after you had turned in. In fact, they reported that it would continue on through until tomorrow.”

“Perhaps Melanie and I should head back this afternoon before it gets dark,” Willy said.

“It’s no rush,” Maggie said. “Even if our home is not as nice as the factory, you know you’re more than welcome to stay here for as long as you’d like.”

The chocolatier nodded and smirked at the couple. “I know what you’re saying, but I do still have a business to run,” he said with a slight yawn.

“We know that too,” Raymond responded, “but since today is a holiday, you wouldn’t have anyone to do business with. Maggie’s brother, Mark, is coming for New Year’s dinner and she hoped you might consider sticking around so that you could meet him.”

Willy nodded as he looked at his hostess. “I simply don’t want to wear out my welcome, you see. One can become too much of a burden if inundated with hospitable offers.”

“You, my dear boy, are anything but a burden,” Maggie scolded him gently. “I think the children really love having you around.”

“Alright then, I accept,” Willy said as he cast a brief glance over towards the coffee table where the two cups were still placed. Next to them, a stack of papers were strewn out across it. Some of them looked official, and without thinking about what he was doing, Willy leaned over in order to get a better look. “What’s all this?” he asked.

“Nothing much, we’ve just been talking about the state of the house,” Raymond said honestly. “We’re trying to figure out what needs to be tended to this year before the government sends out their spies to make certain that we’re behaving ourselves.” He smirked as he nudged Willy good-naturedly. “It’s no cause for alarm.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Willy asked earnestly.

“Now don’t you go and worry yourself about that,” Maggie scolded him gently. “We don’t tell you what is going on around here with the intention of always asking you for help. You’ve already done enough for us.”

“But, if I am able to, then you know that I would in a heartbeat,” he objected.

“Perhaps, but we don’t want you to feel obligated to do anymore than what you have already done,” Maggie said as she reached over and squeezed his hand gently. “Now then, the kids should be getting up pretty soon. Perhaps we ought to adjourn to the kitchen so that I can get breakfast started. After all, we don’t want the children to start the year off hungry.”

“Of course, you’re right,” Willy said, but watched as Raymond collected the papers and put them inside a cabinet drawer. Next, he closed it and with a small silver key, he locked them away. Once he had finished this task, he slid the key inside his pants pocket.

Seconds later, Willy felt Maggie’s hand nudging him along and he allowed her to lead him out of the room. It was now more than clear that it would take a lot more diplomacy on his part to help them create an ideal home for the children who resided there. The candy maker had long since decided that because the children had made him feel like he belonged somewhere, the least he could do was to return their kindness in the best way he knew how.

Contrary to the thoughts that were buzzing about in his mind, Willy continued to make his way down the hallway and into the kitchen. As soon as they had reached the familiar room, the two men began collecting utensils and plates to be set on the table in the dining room. Maggie went over to the counter and began retrieving ingredients in order to blend some ingredients together for pancakes.

As she began to stir things together, Willy retrieved the plates that were now on the countertop and carried them into the dining room. The moment he entered the room, he immediately was reminded of the day when he had first been welcomed into this special home.

It had been several weeks prior to Christmas when he had met a little girl named Sarah in the park. He smiled as he glanced over towards the door leading into the kitchen. On it several of the children’s drawings were affixed with scotch tape.

Taking a deep breath, he began to set the table. Once he had completed the task, the kitchen door opened and Raymond emerged with two large containers of orange juice. After the door swung closed yet again, the chocolatier’s sensitive nose could detect the pleasant scents of freshly made pancakes and maple syrup.

He returned to the kitchen and retrieved a tray of glasses, which would be placed at each setting. Stepping back into the dining room, he smiled slightly as his gaze came to rest on the twenty plates that were now on the table.

A smile touched his lips as the opposite door abruptly opened and Melanie entered the room. “Good morning, Willy,” she whispered shyly as he left the table and walked over to where she was now standing in the doorway.

Reaching her, he immediately enfolded her in his arms. “Happy New Year, Melly,” he whispered as he took her face in his hands and tipped it up in order to collect a kiss. As she felt his lips against her own, goose bumps sprayed along her arms and made her unconsciously shiver.

Noticing this, he tightened his hold as he whispered in her ear. “Are you cold, dearest lady?”

“No,” she whispered, but allowed herself to sink even further into his hold.

“Did you sleep well?” he asked.

“I should be asking you that question since you are in my home,” she said as she allowed her tongue to rake across her lips as though wanting to taste the remnants of his kiss. “When I woke up, you were gone.”

“I didn’t want to disturb you,” he smiled down at her, his blue eyes twinkling merrily. “You looked so peaceful when you were asleep.”

Instead of speaking, she smiled slightly.

They remained in this stance until the kitchen door once more opened and Raymond came out into the room with a plateful of pancakes. They withdrew from the embrace as he spoke. “Good morning, Melanie,” he said. “Do you know if any of the kids are up?”

“I didn’t check,” she confessed. “I’m sure they are. I can only bet that they’re anxiously awaiting Willy’s story of the lonely man for the twentieth time since Christmas.”

Upon hearing her words, Willy could not help but grin somewhat nervously. “I’d be happy to tell it again, but I am not exactly certain if I have a repertoire of stories that I could tell when that one loses its grandeur.”

“I think the children would appreciate anything you have to say,” Raymond said casually. “You could probably recite the local telephone directory and they would hang on your every word.”

Willy flushed slightly as Raymond returned to the kitchen. For her part, Melanie looked shyly at him as her fingers lightly brushed against the necklace that he had given to her for Christmas. “I still can’t get over everything that has happened since you came into our lives.”

Willy leaned over and brushed his lips against hers. “I didn’t do much, but you – you gave me a feeling of family. That’s something that I have not felt in a very long time. Not since…” His voice faltered. “…since I was a boy…”

Taking note of this, Melanie looked at him as her words replaced the silence of his. “…What happened to your family, Willy? You said that you were an orphan, but somehow I get the impression that a lot more has happened to you than just growing up by yourself.”

The chocolatier took a deep breath. “Melly, I’m not really as much an orphan as I said. My father…”

“…He’s still alive?” she interrupted him.

“I think he is, but I’ve never thought that much about going and looking for him. You see, my mother died when I was very young, I remember only a few things about her. I recall how she carried a great love of new and exciting things. My father always tried to squelch that in her, but somehow he failed. Perhaps, in some ways, that trait was passed on to me.”

“You are an orphan, Willy,” she affirmed softly. “Your real family is no longer there and none of them look out for you.”

The chocolatier took her hand in his and offered it a loving squeeze. “Maybe, maybe not,” he said softly. He allowed his fingers to intertwine with hers, the softness of her skin against his somehow encouraging him to change the subject. “No matter, because with you, I don’t feel as alone as I did before.”

She smiled. “I’m really glad.”

As she spoke, several of the children started to come into the room and seat themselves at the table. The little girl named Sarah, whom Willy remembered as being the child he brought back home the day he had first met Melanie and Maggie. She was now looking up at him through doe-like eyes. “Would you sit next to me for breakfast, Willy?” she asked shyly.

“Of course,” he said as he released Melanie’s hand and crossed the room to join the child at the table. As soon as he had seated himself, the little girl leaned over, and kissed his cheek. “Thank you for the new dolly,” she whispered. “She was just what I wanted.”

“What are you going to name her, Sarah?” he asked as he embraced the little girl.

“I don’t know. If she was yours, what would you name her?” she responded to his question with one of her own.

“Wanda,” he said softly.

Sarah nodded, but no further words were spoken.

As even more of the children began to filter into the room, Melanie could not help but wonder about why it was that Willy had slipped from his happy demeanor into that of melancholy contemplation.

Something was not right, and now, Melanie Jarvis was determined to find out what was happening to the man she loved.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Wanda Wonka**

Melanie watched Willy throughout breakfast, but for whatever reason, there was something hidden, almost haunting about the chocolatier’s stance. It did not take an expert to know that there was something wrong, yet he seemed just as secretive about his past as he was about his business practices.

As soon as they had finished eating, the children got to their feet and raced outside to frolic in the snow. In their wake, they left a mass of dirty plates, which the adults promptly began to transport back into the kitchen.

Joined by Maggie and Raymond’s son, Bob, the five of them managed with quick efficiency at getting the dishes washed and dried.

As they finished this particular task, Willy quietly excused himself before stepping out into the hallway for some moments alone. What he did not expect was to see that Sarah was standing in front of the door leading outside and staring out through the window. “I figured that you would be outside playing in the snow with the others,” he said as he joined her.

“I wanted to, but something scared me,” she whispered.

“What is that, Sarah?” he asked.

“I don’t know, you just looked kind of sad,” she said with the same childlike honesty that she had used when they had spoken of the factory the day they had met the very first time.

“Oh sweetheart, I’m fine, I was just reminded of something before we had breakfast is all,” he said. In response to those words, he suddenly felt the child wrapping her skinny arms around him.

“I know how it feels to be alone, Willy,” she whispered softly, her honest words taking him somewhat by surprise. Perhaps the experiences that these children had were what had touched Willy as profoundly. This little girl as well as the other children seemed to understand precisely how he felt.

“Yes, I know you do,” he said gently as he tapped her nose lightly with the tip of his finger. “Now, why don’t you go outside and play in the snow a little? It looks as though the other children are having a delightful time. Who knows how long it will be before the snow melts.”

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said with a nod of his head. Before she could leave, he took a deep breath. “Don’t worry, Sarah, I’ll be here when you get back.”

The child nodded and opened the door. Seconds later, the little girl disappeared outside and the door closed behind her.

As soon as she was gone, he turned away from the front door to see Melanie was now standing in the hallway. She had come out of the kitchen and was watching them as they spoke. The more she watched the confectioner interacting with the children, the more in love she became with him.

“You know, I think Sarah reads you like a dime store novel,” she said bluntly as she went over and wound her arm around him. “The question is, are you going to trust me enough to tell me what’s on your mind, or are you going to leave me to guess?”

The chocolatier turned around and looked at her, a forced smile suddenly covering his handsome face. “It’s nothing, Melly.”

“Nothing?” she asked as she tightened her hold on him. Her head came to rest just below his shoulder and from this position and all that she was able to see was his tousled curly blond hair. Wordlessly, he turned around so that he would face her and manage to return her loving embrace. He bowed his head so that he could hide his face against her hair.

At that moment, Melanie was not quite sure if his actions had been done out of empathy or longing, she simply enjoyed the feeling of having him hold her in his arms.

Even with these good feelings that emanated him, she could still tell that something was wrong. More than anything, she wanted to do something that would make him feel happy again. “I noticed that today was the first time you used that name to address me,” she whispered, this time in his healthy ear. “Is there a reason for this newfound sentimentality?”

Willy shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, I suppose the name just seems to suit you.”

Melanie smiled as she felt his embrace tightening, his fingers now brushing through her hair. As she felt this hold, a trace of moisture hit against one side of her neck and she spoke, when she realized that it was a tear that escaped from beneath one of his eyes. “Willy?”

“Mmm,” he mumbled his voice inaudible as his eyes closed.

“Will you please tell me what’s the matter?” she asked softly as she began to run her hands through his curly hair. For some reason, she was reminded of how Maggie had often done that to her when she was a child. Smiling slightly, Melanie recalled how bruised knees had been a dime a dozen during her youth and how she was an expert in the art of bike collisions. She had the tell tale signs of them in the form of scars that covered both of her knees.

For some strange reason, Melanie felt as though she was not just the chocolatier’s girlfriend, but that their roles had been reversed and she was the one offering support and comfort. Wordlessly, she continued to lovingly stroke his hair for several moments and after a while, she raised her head to feel his hair tickling one side of her face. With one hand, she managed to pat the unruly hair into place.

“Why would something be the matter?” he eventually asked. Clearly, he had used the earlier moments of silence to collect his wayward thoughts and get his emotions in check.

“I don’t know, I just figured that something had changed in you after Sarah asked you about the name for her doll,” Melanie reached for one of his hands and smiled when he surrendered it. Allowing her fingers to wrap snugly around his, she could feel the warmth that emanated his very touch. “Willy, tell me what’s wrong?”

He lowered his head. “I don’t know if I can explain any of it without feeling foolish.”

“Try,” she whispered. “What are you afraid of?”

“What makes you so sure I’m afraid of something?” he asked.

“It’s the only emotion that you seem to emanate right now,” she whispered more to herself than to him.

He took a deep breath and released it, the resignation that lined his face somehow overwhelming to them both. “I’m not really afraid Melly; I’m just concerned that you might be angry with me once I tell you everything I know. The truth is; I’m not really certain if I can handle your feelings changing towards me. I love you more than I love myself,” he confessed.

Her face flushed as she heard these words. Never in her wildest dreams did she feel or believe that she was worthy of that, specifically when the love emanated from this very special man. “Nothing will change the way I feel for you, Willy,” she said softly, her voice filled with the emotion she carried in the depths of her being. “You know that sometimes I feel like I’m ‘Cinderella’ in our own personal fairy tale. I found everything I could ever hope for in your arms, and that is where I hope to stay.”

“What if what I have to say changes everything?” he asked softly. “You remember when I confronted you about the untruths about your life and work?”

Melanie nodded as she looked down at her lap. “Are you going to remind me of how stupid I was?”

“No, but I do know very well that my silence could change things,” he said as he slowly backed away from her, his gaze still locked with hers.

“Are you an axe-murderer, or a cross dresser, or both?” she asked coyly, a small smile crossing her face. She was being jovial, but there was an overwhelming nervousness laced in her words. As she waited for him to respond, she stared intently at him all the while hoping to read the secret between the lines of his mouth.

“Heaven forbid, no!” he said his voice a practical shout. “Melanie, I am trying to be serious here.”

“I know that,” she shot back. “And maybe I’m being this way because I’m a bit nervous about what it is you are about to tell me. Willy, you’re doing what people here might call ‘beating around the bush’.” She took a deep breath, but looked over at him. “What’s the big secret, did you steal your fudge recipe from Slugworth?”

“Melanie Jarvis, I did no such thing,” he admonished, his voice indicative that he was horrified at the mere suggestion. His shock became even more defined than it had been in the wake of her earlier comments.

“Then what could be so bad?” She rested her hand once more on his shoulder, her eyes closing momentarily. “Just tell me, Willy, nothing will change between us unless you want it to.”

When the chocolatier eventually spoke, Melanie’s eyes popped open.

“I have a sister,” he confessed, his four words simple, but filled with more pain than she had seen or experienced in her lifetime.

As she regarded him, she noticed that his stance was nothing that she expected, in fact, there was a mixture of hopelessness and sadness laced in his words. It tore her to pieces to see it, but eventually she opened her eyes and tried to swallow back the persistent thoughts of rejection that she had experienced herself.

“Is that the big secret?” she eventually asked, her words cracking, “that Willy Wonka has a sister?” There was a sarcastic edge to her voice, but this was only concealed by the emotions that were threatening to burst forth. When she finally got them under some sort of control, she managed to look up at him. When she saw the heartbreak that consumed him, she looked away, ashamed at her outburst. “I’m sorry,” she eventually whispered.

“No, it’s me who is sorry,” Willy whispered. “I shouldn’t have kept this from you. I just didn’t know how to touch on this particular subject.”

Melanie took a deep breath as she tried to find the words to speak. “What happened to the man who said he didn’t have a family? You kept saying throughout the holidays that you were once like me.”

“I still am like you, I just happen to have an older sister,” he said softly. “I just didn’t want you to think that I was making light of your situation or the situations of the children here. The truth is; I have absolutely no idea where she is or if she would even want to know about or see me and that’s what been on my mind.”

Melanie took a deep breath. “If I was your sister, I would want to know more about you than the fact that you’re the greatest confectioner on the planet,” she said softly as she rested her hand on his shoulder. “Perhaps now is the time for you to use your fame as a means to help you find her.”

“I can’t do that, what if she doesn’t want the attention?” he asked.

“And what if she’s afraid to contact you because she’s afraid that you’ll think she intends to use you?” Melanie asked rationally. “If you really want to find her, then the actions must be taken by you and not her.”

“Would you ever go and try and find your parents?” Willy asked her softly.

She shook her head. “Not in a million years. You already know that I have my family here. Besides, given the situation that I grew up with, I really don’t need to torture myself with trying to find the people who rejected me.”

“Perhaps I should be like you and forget about it,” he whispered.

“I honestly don’t know the answer to that question, but I don’t think that’s what you really want to do.” She reached over and brushed her hand along his cheek, her touch feather light. “If you want me to help you find her, I will.”

“You really want to help me find her?” he asked as he bit down on his lower lip in very much the manner that she had done when she was nervous.

“Sure I would,” she whispered as she cuddled up to him. “Just don’t forget that it was you who kept telling me that I shouldn’t be afraid of telling you how I felt. Maybe you should trust me in the very same way.”

“So, would you have preferred it if I had confessed to stealing a fudge recipe?” Willy asked; his voice filled with teasing undertones.

“No, I didn’t mean it that way, but you built everything up to this huge climax and I was waiting for you to say that you had done something really terrible. Having family isn’t terrible, Willy, it’s a blessing. I’m really happy for you, and when we find her…” her voice trailed off.

“…Things between us will not change,” Willy finished as he turned and faced her, his hands coming to rest on both of her shoulders. “I know that you’re afraid that they could, but please believe me when I tell you that I will always love you no matter what happens.”

“It’s strange to hear that,” she mumbled. “It’s something that I’m not completely accustomed to.”

Willy smiled as he moved his hand from her shoulder and began to lightly stroke her face. “I didn’t want you to think that I had lied when I told you that I was an orphan.” He cast a glance around the corridor where they were standing before continuing to speak. “Perhaps we should talk about this outside since you said that the walls here have ears.”

She leaned into his touch and smiled as she felt his loving hold tighten. As she remained in his arms, she could feel his breath against her cheek. “Let’s get our coats,” she whispered to him, not wishing to inch her way out of the embrace, but knowing that she would have to before something else happened.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: A Story Unfolds**

As soon as it was decided that they would be going out, Willy and Melanie went and told Maggie and Raymond that they were going for a short walk and would be back within the hour to help with lunch. They collected their coats, bundled up, and made their way down the hallway to the front door.

As they came outside, Melanie noticed immediately that the snowing had ceased and the sky was shifting from gray to blue. It was close to noon, and for a moment, the young woman felt as though they were stepping into a portrait of Victorian aged London.

While she tried to pull her dark brown coat closer to her form, she watched as Willy’s cloak flapped merrily in the breeze. It was a beautiful day, the city was blanketed with snow and the sun was shining down on them. It was truly a stunning spectacle, although the temperature was still quite cold.

Everything outside appeared as though it belonged in classic literature, but neither Willy nor Melanie could truly enjoy the gifts of the majestic morning.

Willy’s mind was centered on his sister, wherever she was, and he pondered whether or not she had enjoyed a wonderful holiday season. He wondered if she had spoken to their father since leaving home and if there was even a way for him to let her know that he was still thinking about her.

Melanie was thinking about what Willy had confided in her and how confused it all made her feel. She wondered if he really was like her and understood the same rejection she had often experienced. More than anything, she pondered the pace in which their relationship had evolved.

Regardless of all the questions she had, she still had so many questions and thoughts about seeing him in such a weakened state. Melanie had not much experience with men, but she had grown up believing that the woman was supposed to be weak, not the man. She tightened her hold on his arm, but continued to walk; the only sounds to emerge were that of their steady breathing.

After some time had passed, Willy casually wrapped a loving arm around Melanie’s shoulders as his cane lightly tapped against the cobblestone pathway. With each step they took, they could both hear the steady rhythm of the cane as it squished its way along the snowy path. Their steady footsteps tapping out a similar rhythm as the cane, resulting in percussion style melodies. This went ignored as Willy suddenly stopped walking, stood motionless, and stared off in the distance.

Melanie abruptly stopped walking and tried to follow his gaze. As she recognized the factory in the distance, she smiled slightly but raised her head to see that he was regarding it with a sad smile on his face. It seemed as though he was still contemplating the events that had taken place in his life since his sister had left London.

Eventually, he spoke, his voice now breaking the stillness. “When Sarah and I first met, I remember standing here next to her and watching as she stared at the factory. She then asked me if I thought it was beautiful.”

“What did you tell her?” Melanie asked.

“I told her that I did,” he said simply. “She didn’t even know my name and yet she carried all the hope and optimism that a small child could know. It reminded me of when I was a boy and of all the times when my life had been easy and carefree. I suppose in hindsight, I went into this business because I wanted to relive those days and recapture the feelings that I thought had died.”

“You must have had a great deal of optimism inside.”

“What makes you so certain?” he asked softly.

“I don’t know; maybe I just figured that you must have had it, otherwise you would never have grown up to create a wonderland.” Upon hearing these words, Willy could not help but acknowledge how they were consumed in an almost naïve and childlike wisdom. “You accomplished something in 34 years that most people have never managed to do in their lifetime.”

Willy turned and looked at her, his blue eyes filled with an emotion that seemed almost unreadable. “I’m not as wonderful as you make me out to be, Melly.”

Melanie looked up at him. “I don’t know; I generally call the shots like I see them.”

Willy said nothing; instead he shifted the cane to his other hand so he could ceremoniously place hers against the bend of his arm. Once his other hand was freed up, he reached for his cane and they began to walk slowly along the uneven pathway.

Instead of immediately speaking, Melanie kept her hand linked formally through his arm. After several minutes of silence passed between them, she eventually spoke, her single word filling the area. “Willy?”

He abruptly stopped and turned around, his eyes now seeking hers. He waited wordlessly for her to speak, and when she finally did, he could feel the element of sincerity emerging through her words.

“I’m not trying to make you out to be more than you are,” she said as she raised her head and looked at him. “To me you really are wonderful.”

Willy, instead of speaking, took her hand in his, his long and slender fingers wrapping snugly around one of her hands. In this position, he held it tightly. “I am not so sure about that, my dearest lady,” he whispered. Turning back around, they once more continued on their way.

The park was relatively empty by the time they arrived. The light of the day had grown brighter and they could see icicles literally hanging from the iron clad streetlamps. Contrary to the time of day it was, shadows started to dance across the sidewalk and Melanie looked up at him, his curly hair and smooth profile bringing a smile to her face.

Before they could once more be swallowed up in silence, she spoke again. “Willy, do you remember the first day we met?”

He nodded, but rather than waiting for him to verbally respond, she reached over and moved a strand of his hair out from in front of his face. “The day we met was the day you told me about the history of that cane. You said that your grandfather entrusted it to you. Do you remember?”

“I remember that you store information rather well,” he mumbled more to himself than to her. Unconsciously, he glanced down at the object he held before looking back over at her.

“What did he give to your sister?” she asked.

“A pocket watch,” he said. “It was not an expensive one but it had been passed through the family for three generations, just as the cane had been,” Willy said. “He always felt that a cane was much more suitable for a boy.”

“He was probably right,” Melanie whispered. “I wouldn’t have known what to do with one.” She turned away, her gaze no longer on the object or even on him. Eventually, they started to make their way along the path once again.

After several minutes more had passed in silence, she spoke again, her voice breaking the silence. “When was the last time you remember seeing your sister?”

“Over twenty years ago, it was when I was Bob’s age,” he said softly. “That was about a year before my father walked out. The strange thing about all of that was how I had seen her at our grandfather’s funeral. I never had the courage to go up and talk to her, though. I suppose the last time we ever really talked was the day she left.”

Melanie looked at him. “I’m sorry.”

“You have no reason to be,” he whispered.

“Maybe not, but it is a sad story and I don’t want to make you unhappy,” she tightened her hold on his arm. “Do you have any idea where she might have gone?”

“Close to ten years ago when I was running the shop on Cherry Street, I did contemplate where she might have gone, but after I opened the factory, I gave up trying to find her. I don’t know where she is or if she has a new name or a family of her own. The truth is; I probably wouldn’t have the courage to try and find out. The truth is, Melly, I’m frightened. I don’t want to show up out of the blue and have her reject me or ask what the wangdoodle I’m doing there. I am not really certain if I could handle setting myself up for that sort of fall again.”

“I know the feeling, but if you don’t go and search for her, then you may never find your peace,” she whispered. “I mean; who knows, maybe there’s a chance that you can somehow pick up where you had once left off.”

“That’s not so easy, she was eighteen at the time and I was only twelve. The thing is; I do understood how she felt. I was well aware of our father’s overwhelming attitude even at that age. The day she left, it suddenly became clear to me that I couldn’t either. I still remember the day as though it was yesterday. I had come home from school and had been sitting on my bed working on a book report on Treasure Island for my English class. I had just sat down and had not even written a single word, when she knocked on the door and told me she was leaving. Suddenly, Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel was the furthest thing from my mind.”

“That must have been hard for you to have someone you love just leave like that,” Melanie said softly. “It reminds me of…” her voice trailed off. For several moments, it was Melanie who tried to block the memories of her parents leaving her at the orphanage when she was only seven. She knew that this was Willy’s battle, and she was determined to be there for him no matter what it might have entailed.

She waited silently for several moments until he continued speaking.

“The thing about Wanda is that she always seemed to emanate wisdom. She could explain her motives rationally without even a trace of guilt or remorse. It sometimes surprised me how well she could do that. At the same instance, I remember how it tore my heart apart when she told me that I could not go with her…”

**Willy’s Flashback**

He had been working on his assigned task, his eyes literally staring holes into the paper. Twelve-year-old Willy Wonka had hoped that it would help drown out the sounds of his sister and father fighting in the downstairs parlor.

He began to scribble along the borders of the notebook paper, the words he wanted to write simply not coming. If truth were known, the curly headed boy was simply not interested in writing about Long John Silver and Jim Hawkins at all; he was more interested in what was happening with his family.

His sister and father had been fighting for much of the afternoon and now he was curious as to what had caused this particular bout. He knew that his father would pitch a fit if he so much as emerged from his room during a fight, so he kept himself holed up in there, the loud voices echoing throughout the house.

“It would serve you right if I left and never came back,” Wanda’s voice suddenly filled the boy’s healthy ear, leaving him to cringe unconsciously. There was no way that this book report would get done that day; in fact, he would probably not be able to concentrate until he was able to speak with Wanda. One good thing about all of this was that he still had three more days until it was due. Thank heavens for small favors.

Willy shook his head all the while trying without success at blocking out the threats his sister was making. She had often threatened to leave, this was nothing new. She had yet to follow through with said threats and even if she wanted to, their father, Wilbur, would have not permitted it at all.

Of course, all these assertions had been valid before Wanda had turned eighteen.

Now that she was an adult, there was no deciphering between her intentions and her actions.

Nervously, Willy glanced around his room and stared at the train set that was set up along one wall. Wanda had helped him build it several days after he had turned ten. He smiled as he recalled the patience his sister had demonstrated during that time. His attention shifted until he was now looking over at the opposite wall. His hand drawn sketches now covered the holes as well as the imperfect paintjob that was on his bedroom walls.

Even as a child, Willy was extremely imaginative, and most people who gave themselves the chance to get to know him would discover the extent of his creative gifts.

Strangely, his bedroom seemed to be the only place where he could explore his artistic and creative genius. He had spent much of his youth alone, and today his bedroom remained one of his favorite places in the world.

As the sounds of the shouting match between his father and sister began to dissipate, Willy’s gaze shifted to the door. He now waited almost expectantly for his sister to come and tap lightly on it. When it eventually happened, he slowly got to his feet and walked over to let her in.

By the time he reached the door, he could feel the nervousness literally catching in his throat. He pulled the door open and raised his head so that he could meet his sister’s gaze.

Wanda Wonka stood at the threshold for several minutes, the young woman dressed in odd looking pants and a flowing shirt. He had become accustomed to her strange mode of dress and knew instinctively the reasons behind why she did not wear dresses at home. In fact, the only time he had ever seen her dressed up was when the two of them headed off to school. It was, during this day and age against the rules for girls to wear trousers to school.

He regarded the pants that she wore, the bottoms rolled up until they hugged her calves just below the knees. Her shirt was a swirl of color and a large white scarf that wound its way through the characteristic blonde curls that domed her head. The white ends of the scarf were knotted and hung down over the back of her shirt. With her hair pulled back in this fashion, Willy could make out large hoop earrings that hung from the lobes of her ears. This gave on the distinct impression that his sister had gone and joined a band of gypsies.

Instead of speaking, he simply studied her face, all the while not fully able to tell what was coming next. She had been crying, but it appeared as though she would never have admitted it to anyone, not even him. As her blue eyes regarded him, she wordlessly came into the room, closed the door, and slowly walked over to Willy’s bed and sat down.

The curly headed boy started to follow her, but when she said nothing, he eventually spoke. “Wanda?”

“I suppose you heard what happened, Willy,” she began to speak. It was actually Wanda who had started calling him ‘Willy’. He was born as William, but because she had always believed that a little kid did not need such a straight-laced and elaborate name, she started calling him this and it had stuck. Now, no one ever called the boy William unless they were angry with him, it was always ‘Willy’, and this would stay with him throughout his youth.

“Not really,” he lied, his words somehow bringing him out of his reverie as he looked over at his sister. He knew perfectly well that a person would have to be deaf to not have picked up the argument between Wilbur and Wanda. Everyone in the neighborhood knew that the dentist and teenager went constantly at each other’s throats. It was as reliable and expected as the evening news. Willy was no exception to that rule; he knew he would hear the arguments each time they happened. In fact, he had given up on trying to shut them out.

“Don’t lie to me,” Wanda looked at her brother, her eyes intent. “I know that you heard every word. You’d have to be deaf in both ears to not.”

Willy rubbed his hands together, but said nothing. Instead, he shrugged his shoulders and waited for Wanda to say something else. When she eventually did, he could feel the sadness literally washing over him like a warm spring rain.

“I’m leaving home, Willy,” she said, her voice filled with matter-of-factness.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Life Changing Choices**

“You can’t,” he tried to speak, but all that emerged was a painful squeak. He knew that his independently-minded sister would never have listened to him; after all, he was only twelve-years-old.

When she did not respond to his utterance, he took a deep breath, the suspense literally hanging in the air like a pendulum swinging back and forth. Finally, he swallowed the golf ball sized lump that lodged itself in his throat and one audible word croaked out. “Why?”

Wanda looked into the innocent eyes of her brother and took a deep breath. “I didn’t tell you everything that was going on. Papa told me that if I told you anything, that he’d kick me out of the house.”

“But what does it matter if you’re leaving?” Willy whispered.

“Yeah, so it seems rather pointless to keep you in the dark,” she said as she clasped her hands together and stared down at her collective fist. Between her fingers several rings covered them; most of which holding fake gemstones and giving her hands a much bulkier look. Willy often observed how she would suck on these stones when trying to find the words she wanted to say. This time she simply stared down at them, her words still hanging in the air.

“Why don’t you just say it then?” the boy asked, the pain emerging in his simple question.

“Papa wanted me to go to the university and study something medically based,” she said. “You know how he is.”

Willy did know; Wilbur was always consumed in logic and study whereas his two children were free spirits, rather like what their mother had been. Hannah Wonka had been a dreamer, and that was something that, much to Wilbur’s dismay, had been passed on to both of their children.

“Yeah, I know,” Willy mumbled, “but Wanda, why can’t you stay? I mean; at least until I’m thirteen, can get a job, and won’t have to hang around here so much.”

Wanda shook her head sadly. “I’m sorry Willy, but I can’t take much more of this. The pressure to go out and do what he wants is enough to make me want to scream.” She unclasped her hands, but looked at her little brother, her blue eyes intent. “Just because I’m a girl, doesn’t mean I’m beneath him. He confronted me today and said that either I would have to go to the university and study something practical or find a man and get married. He made it pointedly clear that I am not to spend another minute under his roof unless I intended on following in his footsteps.”

Willy looked at her. “He’s going to try that with me too, you know.”

“Maybe, but you can’t let him force you down that path. Willy, you are far too creative and industrious to be a dentist. Let’s face it, little brother, you aren’t even dentist material.”

Willy nodded, but something deep inside of him told him that the priority rested with the well being of his sister. He was sad for himself, but he was also worried about her. The two of them had always stuck together. It had been this way ever since their mother had died.

Eventually, he raised his head and looked at her. “Wanda, where will you go?”

“I have some friends who are moving to Liverpool. They have an extra room at their place and told me I could go there. You actually met them when I picked you up from school one afternoon. Their names are Rose Adams and Leonard Jansen. As soon as they get there, they are going to get married. Anyway, I’ve already talked it over with them, and they agreed that I could come along,” she said openly. “But you do understand why I’m doing this, don’t you Willy?”

“I guess,” he lied, but deep down inside, Willy could not understand. He wanted to hold as tightly to his big sister as he could. He would never relate with their prim and proper father and he knew it. Besides, he never really had to contemplate it because he always had Wanda around. But, now, she was leaving.

When no other words emerged, she leaned over and ruffled his curly hair. “I hope you do and that you aren’t just saying that to pacify me.”

Willy looked away, but his next words emerged through his heartbreak. “Why can’t I go with you?”

“Because you’re only twelve,” Wanda said softly. “You have school and your life is here. Maybe one day things will start to get better for you and then I can come back and see how you’re doing. For now, I’ll at least be out of your hair.”

Willy shrugged his shoulders but watched as Wanda got to her feet. “I like you in my hair,” he mumbled. Wanda smiled sadly as his next words emerged. “Will I get to see you again?”

“Maybe, but for now I think it would be best if you just forget about me, at least until you turn eighteen and Papa isn’t able to fill your head with reasons to hate me for what I’m doing or why I’m doing it,” she said. “Don’t forget Willy, ‘we are the music makers’…”

“…‘And we are the dreamers of dreams’,” Willy finished as he watched his sister quietly leave the room.

**Willy’s Flashback End**

Lost in thought, the chocolatier stopped walking yet again. On his cheeks, he could feel the moisture as it streamed down over his face. He had no idea that he had been crying, in fact, he could not remember the last time he had shown such a blatant display of emotion at all. At that moment, the only thing he knew was that his sister had left him and that had crushed his twelve-year-old spirit.

Willy could never forget his sister, even though that was what she had advised him to do. That had been the last time he had seen her. In fact, as he had grown up, he had thought about her almost constantly. Many of his ideas and inspirations had come about because of her. During the years since her departure, he had taken it upon himself to learn as much about Shakespeare as he could so that he could at least feel that sense of closeness to her that time had robbed them of.

“Willy?” Melanie’s voice suddenly emerged and he turned around to face her. What he saw was that she was now digging around in the pocket of her coat. Seconds slowly ticked by and she found a half-crushed, but unused, tissue. “We’re going to find her,” she affirmed softly as she watched him accept the object and wipe it over his eyes.

“She said that she couldn’t take it anymore,” he began to speak, his voice cracking because his throat was unusually dry.

“It must have been hard for you after she left,” Melanie said gently.

“Nothing was ever the same again,” he said brokenly. “When I started working, I used all that time trying to forget about her.” As he spoke, his fingers tightened their hold on the head of the cane until his knuckles began to turn white.

“You must have felt abandoned or betrayed when you didn’t hear back from her,” Melanie said softly. If truth were known, she did not even expect the chocolatier to respond, she simply knew that they were a mirrored reflection of how she felt back when she was seven.

“I did,” he confessed. “Ever since she left, I thought about her almost constantly. I never even stopped to consider the possibility that she might want to reconnect with me. She didn’t want to back when I was a kid. She always told me that she would write and stay in touch, but I never got so much as a Christmas or birthday card from her.” As he was speaking, he lowered his head sadly. “I remember sitting at home just waiting to hear something from her, but I never did.”

“Maybe she tried, Willy,” Melanie whispered. “Perhaps your father intercepted the communications from her. That sometimes happens with kids, they get dragged into the middle of every emotional roller coaster that their parents or guardians can concoct. If it serves their purpose, then many will do it, morals be hanged. They will deny their own flesh and blood the chance to be in touch because they are angry or upset. You and I both know that it’s a selfish and wrong thing to do, but it does happen and maybe that’s what happened with Wanda.” As she spoke, she carefully wrapped her arms around him and held tightly to him, her face pressed up against his side.

He returned the embrace as his next words emerged. “It’s funny, but every time I recite something or start speaking in a foreign language, her image pops into my head. She’s the reason I started reading classic literature and would commit words and phrases from poems to memory.”

“I’m not sure I follow,” Melanie whispered.

Willy took a deep breath. “Wanda was a great lover of language, and she always dreamed of being a writer or something where she could share that special fondness of literature with others. I think that this was perhaps the biggest contention she had with our father. She loved reading, and was someone who lived to do what she wanted and not what was expected. She left home because he was forcing two options onto her that were equally unappealing. Perhaps it was that, which made me feel close to her in the first place. Right after I opened the factory, I started to believe that I had forgotten the sort of impact Wanda had on me. I delved myself into work and forgot so much. Then Christmas happened and I was being reminded of the fact that I do have a sister and that I really miss her.”

They walked several meters before she stopped and spoke. “Do you know what I think?”

“What?” he asked, his question emerging in the very same tone of voice.

“I think that maybe this was someone’s way of telling you that you should stop torturing yourself and go out and look for her,” Melanie said. “I mean; you’re going to constantly be reminded of her until the day comes when you can see her face to face and ask her all the questions that you have been harboring. Until you can resolve these issues, you’re always going to be haunted by what might have been. Perhaps Sarah was the one who catalyzed that.”

As she finished speaking, they passed a couple who were walking towards them. The happy pair called out ‘Happy New Year’, and Willy and Melanie returned the sentiment as they continued to make their way through the park.

“Melly, the thing you’re forgetting is even if I wanted to find her, I have no idea where to start looking,” he confessed. “The last time we spoke, she told me that she was leaving for Liverpool, but today, she could be anywhere.” He paused before continuing. “I’ve just been thinking about how it may be close to impossible for us to pin down her precise location.”

“Nothing is impossible, Willy,” she responded, her voice intentionally soft. “You made a fairy tale come true for me. I won’t even elaborate on all the wonderful things you have done for the kids as well as the Richardson family.” She raised her head as her eyes sought his, a small smile playing at her lips. “Besides, who was it who told me to ‘hold my breath, make a wish, and count to three’?”

“It was just an idea that came about through a poem,” he responded.

“It was a lesson in fantasy and in believing in the impossible,” she said with a gentle smile. “You gave me something wonderful to believe in, Willy Wonka. I love you with all my heart for the newfound hope that I have found whenever I am in your arms.”

He offered a slight smile, but gripped her upper arm with one hand and gently pulled her closer to him. “In such a short span of time, you’ve given me so very much as well, Melly Jarvis.”

“Then let me give you another gift,” she said. “Let me help you try and find your sister.”

“Why would you want to do this?” he asked.

“Because I love you and I want to give you a small percentage of hope back that you have given to me.” As she spoke, the tears got caught beneath her eyes.

Wordlessly, he bowed his head and kissed her. Seconds later, a gust of breeze blew and he withdrew ever so slightly. “Perhaps we should head back; the others will be wondering where we disappeared off to.”

Melanie smiled coyly. “I don’t think so. If you ask me, they’ll probably think we took a car and went to park at the first make-out point we could find.”

“Perhaps, but with all the mistletoe that was hung around the house over Christmas, I can imagine that they planned everything that way anyway,” he said with a slight smile covering his otherwise unhappy face.

Instead of immediately walking back in the direction they had come, he shoved the cane under his arm before pulling her into his arms and cupping her face with both of his hands. “I love you,” he whispered as he leaned in and kissed her, the gentle pressure making her raise her arms and wrap them around him. Seconds later, a second gust of wind blew and he withdrew.

“We really should get back, it’s getting colder,” he whispered, his arms still wrapped securely around her.

She nodded and as their embrace loosened and he grabbed the cane with one hand while his free arm wound around her waist and they started to walk wordlessly back in the direction of the children’s home.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: A Lone Observer**

While the chocolatier and Melanie were making their way from the children’s home to the park, a lone figure stood at the gate in front Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory staring into the barren courtyard.

Unbeknownst to any of them, Wanda Wonka had not only returned to London, but she was at her brother’s front door. The tall, curly headed woman was dressed in her strange and eccentric style; but no one could see that because she was wrapped snugly in a long brown coat that brushed against her ankles. Her characteristically curly blonde hair had been pulled back from her face and hung in a loose ponytail down over her back. This, too, was concealed by the woolen hat that covered her head.

As the gusty wind blew stronger, she could feel the hair at the nape of her neck flying about. _It’s getting colder,_ she thought as she felt herself shivering from the drafty London breeze. Her eyes closed momentarily as she began to fantasize herself inside her brother’s unbelievable factory.

For a time, she remained where she was, her gloved hands holding the iron bars as her eyes stared up at the top of the tallest smokestack. As the name ‘Wonka’ blinked on and off in a steady rhythm, Wanda could feel the tears catching in her eyes. This seemed to happen every time she stopped by the factory gates. Now with it being a holiday, it was close to impossible for her to conceal them as she had done in years gone by.

Would her brother even remember her? Or would he believe that she had an ulterior motive in mind by appearing in his life? Coming back from Liverpool had been had difficult decision, but she had made it and now she lived less than four miles from the factory.

Wanda was frightened at the prospect of Willy resenting her for not being able to keep her word to him. She had tried everything she could to stay in touch, but none of her letters had gotten through to her brother at all. Eventually the letters that she had painstakingly written and posted had been sent back unopened. This left her with no other alternative but to wait until he had grown up.

She knew that it was not her fault that Wilbur Wonka had confiscated her correspondences and sent them back. It did not stop her from pondering whether or not Willy have understood why everything happened as it did.

“He’s always been so fragile,” she muttered under her breath as she dug in the pocket of her jacket and pulled out an envelope. It had once been white, but now it was yellow with age. Without thinking about what she was doing, she carefully opened the letter and pulled it out. Wrapped inside the stationary was a postcard from Liverpool as well as crossword puzzle that had been carefully cut out of an old newspaper.

She smiled slightly as she regarded the black and white colored squares of the puzzle. A smile tugged at her lips as she remembered how much Willy had loved trying to solve them and was a far cry better at it than most adults. This was perhaps due to the fact that even at a young age, he had possessed a vast vocabulary and love of language. Somehow Wanda was left to conclude that this was one thing that not even distance could eradicate.

Sighing sadly, she returned the postcard and the clipping to the envelope before unfolding the letter. Once she held it in both hands, she began to read the words that were neatly written on the page.

~~~~~

_Dear Willy,_

_I arrived in Liverpool only two days ago and it seemed like something that comes straight out of a dream. The city is very nice, it’s cleaner than London, and there’s something intellectual about it that makes me want to finish school early and study English at the university. It’s sometimes hard for me to believe that I’m actually here._

_The house where we are living is rather small; the room I am using is about half the size of your bedroom at home. It’s pretty empty, but Rose and Leonard said that we could go to the salvation centre and look for some furnishings for it. Until I get a sofa or bed, I’ll be sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag._

_I miss you, probably more than I thought I ever could, but I still remember all the good times we had and all the fun things that we used to do. I wish that things had turned out differently, but they didn’t and neither of us should have to live in regret. I will try and write you every week. I owe you that, at least._

_I hope to see you soon, little brother._

_Love,_   
_Wanda_

~~~~~

She folded the letter and returned it to the envelope as a sigh emerged from between her pursed lips. _If only I could tell him everything,_ she thought as she slipped the letter back into the pocket of her coat.

Along one wall near the gate, Wanda suddenly spotted a small post box. For whatever reason, she had not seen it before when she had come to the factory. In fact, she was afraid to think that she could simply drop some form of news or communication into that box and have it reach her brother. Her hand patted the pocket where her twenty-two year old letter rested, but she made no attempt to fish it out and drop it into the box. Maybe next year she would find the courage to do something beyond just standing at the gate and staring into the courtyard.

Long before she had moved back to London, she would come to the factory every year between Christmas and New Year’s. There, she would stand and stare at it for the longest time, her thoughts catapulting her back to her memories of her youth. These recollections were always centered on her brother, and these would often bring a small smile to her face.

Even when she had not been living in London, she took what she had started to dub as her annual pilgrimage to the factory. Now, every time she came, the same thoughts seemed to embody her. Willy was now a recluse, and she had no reason to believe that he would venture forth from the factory just to see her.

Wanda knew almost instinctively that what the newspapers had said about her brother’s trust issues had been true. Willy had lost his faith in the rest of the world, and his response to it seemed completely normal. Of course, this made her guilt increase, and she constantly asked herself if his trust issues had been catalyzed when she left him alone when he was a boy.

The sounds of squealing tires in the distance brought her back to the present and she raised a hand and wound it gingerly around one of the bars that separated her from the factory grounds.

“Happy New Year, Willy,” she whispered under her breath as she patted the iron bar before releasing it.

She backed away from the gate and started to walk slowly in the direction of her small flat.

Wanda had come back several months before, her status jobless and heartbroken. The truth about her being Willy Wonka’s sister had somehow leaked out at the school where she had been teaching. Suddenly, and without any sort of warning, she had been dismissed from her job. _Dismissed,_ she thought plainly, _that was another word for getting fired._

She had not done anything that could be construed as wrong; she was simply identified as being the elder sister to one of the most prominent men in the United Kingdom. The children, instead of trying to pay attention to their lessons had inundated her with questions about her brother; questions that she, unfortunately, could not even answer.

Amidst it all, she did not blame the children for their curiosity, nor did she blame her superiors for the dismissal. After all, she was hired to teach not talk endlessly about the candy industry. In this particular instance, it had become a very difficult situation for a woman who lived to teach. The fact that she carried the same name as the world’s greatest confectioner had done very little to make her life easy.

Sighing, she bit down on her lip. The only thing it seemed to reap was a willingness to run away from it. At the same instance, she knew that she could not. After all, running away had caused this estrangement to come about in the first place.

She wrapped her arms around herself and stared at the group of buildings. Eventually, she backed away from the gate. She had been standing there long enough, and now she just wanted to go home, drink a cup of tea and relax. Ironically, her home was on Cherry Street and was located several doors down from where her brother’s candy store used to be.

Wanda lived alone, she had barely any friends, and it seemed that aside from her guilt, she was pretty isolated from the rest of the world.

She remembered when Willy had opened the factory; she had been there to see him, standing high and glorious on a stage, his eyes shining with light and enthusiasm. From the manner he stood in an eccentric suit and hat, she could feel the pride bursting forth as though it was she who had done something special and not him.

The moment he had cut the red tape, which signified the beginning of Wonka Industries; she had politely applauded along with the rest of the onlookers. Inside, she was cheering so loudly that she thought she would surely explode with happiness. Of course, before she could go up to her brother and congratulate him, the press practically stormed the gates, many of them pushing their way past her as though she was nothing more than a fleck of dirt on the pavement.

Before she could make out what had just happened there were rows upon rows of people standing in front of Willy, their questions piercing the air. Instead of trying to get closer, she receded from the crowd and once again disappeared. It felt strange for her to be staring up at her brother in the very same way that he had done with her when they had been kids. It was a bittersweet irony, and it seemed to follow Wanda everywhere.

It was perfectly clear that Willy had everything he could possibly have wanted. What was she compared to that?

“Excuse me, Miss?” a clipped sounding voice suddenly emerged and she turned to see a man who looked to be about her age standing not too far away from the gate.

“Yes?” she asked, her voice taking on a somewhat tired essence, but she found herself not even bothering to respond beyond that.

“I was wondering if you were in need of direction, you seemed to be standing there as though you have lost your way,” the man said.

“I’m not interested in religion,” she said almost defensively as she tried to distance herself from him.

The man chuckled, “well that’s a relief.”

Wanda stopped dead in her tracks and turned around. “I’m sorry; generally when people approach me on the street and say something like that it means that they are trying to convert me to their faith.”

“I’m not, I just saw you standing here and you looked a little bit out of it,” he said.

“I seem to evoke that sort of response in others quite often,” she mused with a slight smile.

“I know the feeling,” he said as he pointed in a specific direction. “If you’re heading that way, I can accompany you a few blocks.”

Wanda looked at the man. He was handsome; his eyes were green with flecks of brown in them. _They are pretty eyes,_ she thought, _and he seemed polite enough._ “I suppose that would be alright,” she eventually offered.

The man nodded as they started walking away from the factory. “So where are you heading on such a cold day as this?”

“I was taking a walk and thinking about stuff,” she said smiling sadly.

“I see, well my name is Mark Reynolds, what’s yours?”

“Wanda…Smith.” As the hasty untruth emerged from between her lips, she raised her head to see that Mark appeared not to have noticed the shift in the tone of her voice when her supposed last name had emerged. Instead, he formally extended his hand to her and smiled.

“It’s nice to make your acquaintance,” he said.

Not knowing what to do next, Wanda accepted his hand, and watched with bemusement as he planted a formal kiss to the top of it. After several seconds, he released it.

Instead of resorting to aggression, she started to take in his appearance and noticed that along with being dressed in a thick blue coat with a hood that covered his head, he was wearing corduroy pants and thick winter boots. Thinning brown hair could be seen contrary to the hood that covered his head. A friendly smile stretched across his face, which she eventually returned.

“I’m sorry if I seemed rude just now,” she offered apologetically.

“No apology necessary. I don’t think you were rude,” he said with a casual smile. “I figure that at least you’re well armed if any of those religious zealots that roam the streets around here were to happen by.” He paused for several moments before continuing. “So it would seem that you’re alone on New Year’s Day?”

“Yes, I suppose I am,” she said. “What about you?”

“I’m actually on my way to visit my sister’s family,” he began. “They invited me to come several weeks ago and it seemed better an option than sitting at home and watching sports on the telly.”

“I guess that’s actually my option,” she said. “I don’t mind it so much, I like being alone, but I came out because I figured that there was no harm in going for a walk and trying to clear my head.” She turned back in the direction they had come, the factory still rising in the distance behind them.

Mark’s eyes seemed to follow her gaze. Seconds later, his next question emerged, which paralleled his observations. “So, you a fan of Willy Wonka’s work?” he asked.

“Yes, I guess you could call it that. I actually have a flat on Cherry Street near where he used to live,” she admitted. “It’s strange, but I can’t help but remember the pandemonium that happened only recently.”

“You mean when the Golden Ticket announcement came down?” he asked and when she nodded, he continued. “I suppose some people are still a bit star-struck regarding him.”

“I figure that a lot of people are,” she offered freely. “I walk by the factory just about every day. I can’t explain my fascination with it, but it’s there.” She ran her hand down the front of her coat, her eyes momentarily closing.

“I suppose a lot of people do that,” he said as they reached a cross street and Wanda took a deep breath as they entered the park that extended between her flat and the factory.

As they started to walk through it, they soon came upon another couple who were walking slowly towards them in the opposite direction. The man and woman looked to be deep in conversation.

Wanda initially said nothing, but she found herself smiling when Mark called out, his voice emerging like a bell chiming in the distance, “happy New Year.”

The other couple responded in kind, and this propelled her to offer a casual wave as well. Despite her overwhelming loneliness, she smiled. “How is it that three simple words can make me smile?” she muttered to the stillness.

“I don’t know,” Mark said. “Sometimes, it takes a cheery word or two to make us remember the blessings of the day. That’s what my sister used to say anyway. She’s always coming up with these wise remarks that sound remotely like the inside of a greeting card.”

“It sounds like a very special person to me,” she said as they reached the boundary of the park and she motioned with her hand to the left. “I have to go that way.”

“Then I guess this is where we will part company, since I have to keep going straight,” he said. “But, at the very least before we offer the general niceties, I can at least give you my card.” He dug in his pocket and pulled out a small card before extending it to her.

Once she accepted it, she spoke, “thank you.” Looking down, she began to study the card that he had given to her. “Oh, I see you’re a lawyer. Does this mean you’re going to want an accompanying fee for helping me through the park?”

“No, I was actually hoping that you’d call me for more sociable reasons,” he smiled flirtatiously. “That is if you have no objections.”

“None at all,” she said as she tucked the card inside her pocket along with the faded letter. “Unfortunately, I don’t have a pen to write mine down, so I’ll just have to call you in the coming days.”

“That sounds good,” he said, “happy New Year, Wanda.”

“Happy New Year to you, Mark, and thank you for accompanying me back. I don’t like to walk through the park alone.”

“I’m glad I could be of service, take care, and I look forward to hearing from you,” he started to head down the street as she turned to the left. She stopped several meters away before stopping and turning around and staring back at where they had been standing and talking.

He was definitely nice, and nice people seemed to be precisely what Wanda Wonka needed at that moment in time.

As she reached Cherry Street, she dug into the recesses of her other pocket in search of her keys. Finding them, she climbed the stairs to a wooden front door, used one of them to open it before entering the building and allowing the door to casually close behind her.

Coming down a long hallway she began to shift her keys around before finding the one she intended to use to gain access to her flat.

Seconds later, she reached her front door, and stuck the key in the lock. Turning it, the door clicked open and she pushed her way inside. As the warmth of her home welcomed her, she tossed the key onto the cabinet in the front hall before retreating into the kitchen to make some hot chocolate.

As the milk was heating, she retrieved her purse and pulled out the letter that she had sent to Willy as well as Mark Reynolds’ business card.

Little did she know, while walking in the park, she had actually waved to her brother.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Irony**

Upon parting company with Wanda, Mark headed in the direction of the Kinsley Street Children’s Home. Without thinking, he raised his arm and shifted the coat sleeve to one side before looking down and checking his watch. “Oh man, I’m late for dinner again, Maggie’s going to kill me,” he muttered under his breath as he quickened his pace.

With Wanda no longer at the forefront of his thoughts, he reached the gate, opened it before racing through it and allowing it to clang closed behind him. From there, he took the three steps as one before he reached the front door and suppressed the button that was to the left of it. 

Abruptly, the sounds of the chime filled his ears as the door abruptly opened and he found himself looking into the warm eyes of Maggie Richardson. She was smiling when she recognized him and immediately reached out to embrace him.

“Hello Mark, it’s so good that you could pencil us in,” she said smiling, “Happy New Year!”

“Well, sis, who am I to turn down a free home-cooked meal?” he asked with a coy smirk as his eyes twinkled mischievously.

“What? No ‘Happy New Year’ for your favorite sister,” she said as the embrace loosened.

“You’re my only sister,” he said coyly, but obediently looked at her, “Happy New Year, Maggie. How have you been?”

“A bit worried, but now that you’re here, there are only two other people for us to wait for before we can dig in.” As she spoke, she ushered him into the house and closed the door behind them. “You know, I don’t remember a New Year’s Day when it had been this cold.”

Mark shook his head, “probably not since we were kids. Anyway, I’m sorry, I was running late. I probably would have been more punctual had I not met a lady who was out and about and I saw fit to escort her through the park.”

“How very polite of you,” Maggie said smiling. “Papa would have been proud.”

“Well, after all, it was the right thing to do, besides, she was pretty, and had no gold colored ring on her left ring finger.” He nudged his sister playfully. It had been a long-standing joke in their family that Mark was doomed to a life of extended bachelorhood. Of course, Maggie never ceased at giving him a hard time about his longstanding reputation at being disinterested in dating.

Perhaps there was something to be said for someone who now was a partner in his own law firm.

After several seconds had passed, his expression grew earnest. “I don’t suppose you heard on the radio how the roads are looking?” When she shook her head, he continued. “Well then, I will probably have to leave earlier than usual if I’m going to get back home before everything ices over.”

Maggie shook her head. “I am not counting on too terribly much; the radio said that the streets have already started to do so anyway, so if you want to stay the night, you’re welcome to the sofa.”

“What about the guest room?” Mark asked.

“That’s already occupied,” Maggie said. “Of course, you can feel right at home. The kids will probably want you to stay up really late and tell them about how the Grinch stole Christmas and explain how that lasted through to New Year’s Eve. Of course, you will also be persuaded to give them the precise ingredients for ‘Who Pudding’ and ‘Christmas Roast Beast’.”

“Who pudding, yes, add twenty Whoville residents and beat the rhyme and reason out of them,” he smirked. “Naturally that would be fun, and since I did leave a set of pajamas here the last time I came, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt for me to stay. But, first thing Monday morning I have to be at the office at eight. I have an appointment with Mr. Bernard. He needs me to notarize his will yet again. He’s changed his mind about the beneficiary for like the hundred and fiftieth time.” He yawned with feigned boredom. “Of course, this also means that I will get my hundred and fiftieth commission for doing so.”

“Then it’s settled,” Maggie said as she started to make her way in the direction of the kitchen. “I need to do the finishing touches on lunch, if you want to join me. Either that or you can wait around the front parlor for Melanie and her boyfriend to get back. They’ve been out an awfully long time, I hope they’re okay.”

“Melanie Jarvis has a boyfriend?” Mark asked, his eyes still twinkling. “The last time I really sat down and talked to her, she was still aspiring to be the first female player for Manchester United.”

“Well, I guess you could say the aspirations of stardom grew out of her. Today, she has grown into a lovely young woman.” As she spoke, Maggie smiled at the amazed look that shadowed her younger brother’s face.

“Little Melanie actually has a boyfriend?” Mark repeated as he regarded his sister with a shake of his head. “I don’t believe it, she was always such a tomboy.”

“Not anymore, and contrary to popular opinion, that little tomboy blossomed into a lovely young woman. Today she’s managed to hook herself quite a catch,” Maggie said. It was so much fun to string her brother along, and in this case, she was going to have a great deal of fun telling him about Willy Wonka.

“It seems hard to believe that she would ever become interested in dating. She seemed more interested in fishing for fish, as opposed to catching a bloke,” he said. “So, where did she meet this, uh ‘catch’ anyway?”

“I’m not sure you’d believe me if I were to tell you,” she said with a bright smile. “Perhaps the best way to break the news to you is to tell you that I have a new kid, and one who is quite a bit taller than me.”

“Melanie’s boyfriend has become one of your kids?” Mark asked. “Come on Maggie; just tell me who this guy is. I mean; is he good enough for her?”

“I would say he definitely is, yes, and he gave us quite a Christmas, too. Anyway, last night he joined us to ring in the New Year and now they are staying the weekend in the guest room,” she said. “I can hardly wait until you meet Willy; he’s just the nicest boy in the world.”

“Willy?” Mark mouthed the name and arched an eyebrow. “Are you sure that Melanie isn’t robbing a cradle?”

“I would most certainly say that she is not, since Willy is several years her senior,” Maggie said barely able to contain herself. “His last name is Wonka,” she managed to sputter out.

As soon as the words were out, Mark’s eyes widened as though she had just told him that she had six winning numbers in the lottery.

“Willy Wonka is hanging around _here_?” Mark asked incredulously, but when he saw his sister nodding, he shook his head, “no way!”

“Yes way,” Maggie said once her laughter had dissipated.

“What is the most famous recluse doing hanging around this place?” he repeated his question.

“I don’t know, but Willy and Melanie seem to have hit it off quite well,” she said. “And I want you to behave yourself when they get back here.”

“Maggie, I’m 43, do you honestly think I would stir up trouble for one of your kids?” he asked with a look that was a telltale sign of trouble. “No matter how old he may be.”

“I am not quite sure, when you get that ‘Monty Python’ look in your eyes, there’s no telling what you have cooking up in that wee brain of yours, my dear baby brother. I happen to remember rather well the times when you would get into anything that wasn’t nailed to the floor when mischief making was on your mind. I also remember the night before my prom when you took my makeup and smeared it across the wall. ‘I wanted to make a copy of Picasso’s famous work,’ you argued,” she said as she wagged her finger at him.

“I know, you came into my room and said that my days were numbered. Of course that was until Raymond got to the house, saved my butt, and told you that you looked prettier without it,” he related.

She nodded. “Yes, and I never forgot that moment, so don’t even think about making trouble here, we’ve already got a houseful of it with the kids.”

Mark raised his right hand. “I promise not to get them into any trouble. Of course, I can’t make any promises with regards to myself. After all, Willy Wonka or no, he’s going to get the third degree when they get here. I have to do the general big brother cross examination to contend with to see if he’s good enough for her.”

Maggie took a deep breath. “Rule number two hundred and forty-three, keep the briefcase outside, Mister Lawyer.”

“You’ve got it, sis,” Mark said casually as they went into the kitchen. Of course, if the lawyer had his way, there was going to be some legalese to ring in the New Year and nothing, not even his sister’s endless rule book, was going to prevent it.

~~~~~~

Once they had come into the large room, Mark went over and seated himself at the table. “Are you making apple custard again this year?” he asked.

“Of course, it’s not only your favorite but Bob likes it too,” Maggie said. “I can’t disappoint my boys now, can I?”

“Boys?” Mark asked with a childish whine.

“Yes, you and Bob are my boys,” she said, this time resorting to wagging a wooden spoon at him.

“Alright, so did you and Raymond finally get tired of calling him Bobby?” Mark asked.

“Yes, he proved himself to be quite mature during Christmas,” she said as the front door opened and closed. She raised her head and looked in the direction of the door leading out into the corridor. “Oh, that must be Willy and Melanie.”

“What about dinner?” Mark asked.

“Don’t worry, Mark, you’ll not be forced to go hungry. All I need to do is put it into serving bowls and call the kids.” She wiped her hands on a towel and started towards the door. Mark followed her, his curiosity about Willy now overtly piqued.

As soon as he stepped out into the foyer, Maggie had approached the two of them, and Mark smiled as he recalled having run into them at the park. He was not exactly certain as to whether or not Melanie had actually recognized him since she seemed rather preoccupied at the time. Instead of speaking, he watched as his sister took their coats and hung them in the wardrobe adjacent to the door.

“I thought I would have to send out the search party for you two. Lunch is nearly ready and it seems to be getting colder by the second out there,” she said, her gaze coming to rest on Willy. The chocolatier was standing beside Melanie with his arm still holding her as though expecting her to fall over at any given moment. Instead of speaking of his mannerisms, she looked at the chocolatier. “Willy, I’ve been thinking.”

“That’s a dangerous occupation to have,” Mark quipped, his eyes dancing merrily.

“Would you mind?” Maggie turned around and looked at her brother. “Your commentary is not needed right now.” She turned back around to see that Melanie was smiling slightly. “I suppose I should introduce this smart aleck to you before I tell you my idea. Willy, this is my brother, alias the biggest smart aleck in London, Mark Reynolds. Mark, this is Willy Wonka.”

“My bark is worse than my bite, I can assure you,” Mark said smiling at them. “I’m pleased to meet you.” He extended his hand to Willy.

“Check for a joy buzzer,” Melanie piped up. “Mark has been known to stir up more trouble than some of the kids here are capable of.”

Willy smiled and nodded, but seeing that his new acquaintance had none, he shook hands with Maggie’s brother. “Happy New Year,” he said smiling and Mark nodded.

“To you too,” he turned and looked at his sister. “You see I am capable of being a nice guy and not making trouble.”

Maggie, instead of looking at her brother turned and looked at the chocolatier. “Willy, my suggestion is that you stay the night here. The radio has been reporting that there’s a frost warning and although the factory is not very far away from here, the streets are starting to freeze up again and I don’t want anything bad to happen when you leave to go home.”

“I would be happy to stay, but I only brought enough things for one night,” he objected. “I had intended on returning home tonight.”

“It’s your choice,” she said. “But not to worry, we do keep a plentiful supply of toiletries around here and if you want to stay, you’re more than welcome.”

“If this is not any trouble,” the chocolatier said simply.

“Not to worry, Willy, if it was then she would have initiated you with spiders in your bed,” Mark said with a smirk.

“Spiders?” Willy looked at Maggie. “You’re not into pranks, are you?”

“No, but that was definitely my cue to go and see about lunch,” she said as she looked at her brother. “Mark, why don’t step out of character and be helpful?”

“Too predictable, sis,” he said with a quirky smile. “I prefer to have my fun giving you a hard time.”

“Go round up the kids, then or I will withhold your custard,” she said as she watched as the elder of the two men dash off to do as she had requested. “After all these years, it still works,” she said as they started to walk in the direction of the dining room. “Oh and Willy, just so you know, my brother is a regular pill and tends to enjoy stirring up trouble, but he’s really a good guy.”

“He seems nice,” Willy said, as they reached the room and entered.

“He probably can’t believe that I actually met someone,” Melanie said. “I can imagine him being more than just a little bit surprised.”

“Why is that?” he asked.

“Come here and I’ll show you.” She led him over to a small hutch and opened it before pulling out a small photo album. Inside it were faded photographs and news clippings. She flipped through the pages and then stopped and handed the book to him. “I’m in the middle.”

Willy nodded, but began to study the photograph. After several moments, he raised his head. “That’s you?” He asked as he beheld the short haired, freckle faced, child holding the white and black football and sporting a Manchester United football jersey.

“Yeah, I guess one could say I was just one of the guys. I used to be as big into football as any boy was,” she said. “Instead of playing dolls with the other girls, I was out back practicing with a football. The boys never really saw me as a girl; they just saw me as one of them.”

“Did you like playing sports?” He asked as he ran his hand over the photograph.

“I guess, it was something that I was pretty good at. I mean; I did kick a fair share of goals, but by the time I got to the age where I became interested in dating, I had already had the reputation of being one of the guys. I never had a boyfriend, and was pretty much a big fat zero in that department.”

Willy reached over and touched her face, the softness of his fingers making her turn back around. When she did, he spoke. “I was a zero in both dating and sports. The truth is; the only thing I was any good at was making candy. You’re probably the first person I’ve ever met who sees way beyond all the things that I’m not.”

Instead of initially speaking, she began to nervously rub her hands together. “But, what is it about me?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve never been any good at anything unless you count football and I’m too old for that now. I mean; you say that all you can do is make candy, but you love it and are good at it. I mean; you’re a success at it and everyone knows your name. I suppose whenever I look at this book I am reminded of what I used to be and what I’m not. I know that you see beyond everything, but I’m still reminded of all the things that I hate and loathe about myself. Mark sometimes, without thinking, has his ways of making me feel less than worthy.”

Willy pulled the book out of her hands and returned it to the hutch. “Then don’t look at it,” he said softly as he regarded her with all the love and gentility he was capable of. “You know, I could not bring myself to look at my old photographs for the very same reason. I wasn’t a popular child, in fact, I was teased rather frequently. You think my life is easy, but getting started, everything that I did was more or less out of necessity as opposed to desire. Don’t get me wrong, I always wanted to be a confectioner, but I truly had no idea that it would ultimately end up like a virtual Pandora’s box.” He smiled gently at her. “I was alone and isolated for much of my youth and that gave way to ideas and experiments. Perhaps that was what succeeded in separating me from the rest of the world as I got older.”

As he spoke the dining room door abruptly opened and Maggie walked into the room with a large platter covered with a baked ham. She smiled at them before leaving the room once again.

Once they were alone again, Willy took a deep breath. “I really am glad that we met and that everything happened as it did. Ever since that day, I have contemplated what my life would have been like if we had never met and I don’t want to contemplate it. Each time I think about it, I discover that back then I was probably half of what I could have been.”

“That’s so beautiful,” she whispered as she felt her body enfolded in his arms.

“It’s the truth,” he said. “Please believe me when I tell you that I don’t care about what you once were, I care about the person that you are now.”

“I want to…” she began, but her voice trailed and she bit down on her lip. Before she could even collect her thoughts and continue speaking, Willy touched her lips with his fingers before leaning in and kissing her.

As she felt the touch of his lips against her own, she allowed her arms to wind their way around him. Seconds later, she felt his hands stroking against her cheeks and she allowed herself to sink even further into the kiss. 

_I have to help him find his sister,_ she thought desperately. _He has only given me a few clues as to where to start, but perhaps they would be enough, even if it’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Maybe Maggie Richardson would be the one person who would be able to help us; after all, a promise is a promise._

Seconds later, the door opened and their kiss broke when they heard the sounds of children’s laugher filling the room.

Flushing, the couple backed away from one another and Willy looked at her. “We’ll take up where we left off later,” he promised her as he went over and seated himself at the table.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Melanie’s Confession**

About an hour later, lunch was over and Melanie had retreated into the kitchen and started helping Maggie with the clean up. The older of the two women was smiling as she washed the pots and pans. She did not see the forced expression on the face of her foster daughter, but for whatever reason, Melanie had a great deal more on her mind than just how dinner had turned out.

Amidst the incessant question that was nagging at her consciousness, Melanie could not stop pondering how it was possible that in such a short span of time, she had attracted and held the chocolatier’s heart in her hands. _How could he love me?_ She asked herself almost constantly.

Eventually, she looked at Maggie and spoke, her voice breaking the silence. “Mrs. Richardson, may I ask you a question?”

“Of course dear, you know you can ask me anything you like,” Maggie said as she lowered the dish rag and turned to face the younger woman. “What is it?”

“I was just wondering how long you knew Mr. Richardson before you got married?” she asked.

“Why?” Maggie stopped everything she was doing and turned to face Melanie. “Are you looking to get my blessings for you and Willy?”

“No, that’s not it,” Melanie began, her face flushing crimson. “I was just wondering if maybe we’re sort of rushing things. You know that everything did happen rather quickly.”

“What does your heart tell you?” Maggie asked.

“A bunch of stuff actually,” Melanie said softly. “The problem is, some of what it is saying is laced in mixed signals. I mean; we’ve only been dating little more than a week and I sort of feel as though I’m living this strange fairy tale existence. It doesn’t feel like it is real sometimes. Every time I stop and contemplate it, I feel like I’m in the role of a half-witted princess who was in the right place at the right time. The thing is, you and I both know that I’m not exactly princess material.”

“Perhaps you don’t think you are, but maybe Willy does,” Maggie said gently as she took a deep breath. “Melanie, it’s obvious that you have never had a boyfriend, and you’re going to constantly ponder whether or not you’re going about it the right way.” She paused as the younger woman nodded dejectedly. “Well, what if I were to tell you that there is no right way to have a relationship? Some people get married after a week; others wait several years. If there was a rule book, or some crazy idea as to what is normal, then everyone would be trying to fit into these silly notions.” She took a deep breath, but released it slowly. “The point is, Willy is in love with you, and it is quite easy for me to tell that you are in love with him. Love is a very beautiful and precious thing, and even though it is fragile, it’s more special than you can imagine.”

“But it’s only been a week,” she whispered. “I’m a realist, Mrs. Reynolds, and I’m not sure how long this is going to last. He may wake up tomorrow and there would be someone else waiting for him. I mean; look at me, how could someone like him ever love someone like me?”

“Perhaps you should start by accepting the fact that you are not the child you once were,” she said firmly. “Melanie, you have grown into a very kindhearted and loving woman…”

“…Don’t forget homely,” she muttered under her breath.

Upon hearing this, Maggie took an exasperated breath and shook her head. Before she could continue speaking, Melanie did. “Just look at me. Over Christmas I stood in this house wearing a beautiful Victorian style gown and all that time it felt as though I was dressed in a costume and ready for a masquerade.” She paused. “Don’t you see? I’m not this beautiful creature like in ‘My Fair Lady’; I am not going to burst into some flawless butterfly.”

“I don’t think that’s what Willy wants,” Maggie said softly. “Melanie, he loves you, for all that you are inside, not for how you physically look or what you once were. That’s what he told me when I was bringing the ham into the dining room. Don’t make the crucial mistake of believing that you have to prove your worth to him. He is fully aware of that. He sees it in your heart.”

“Maybe, but I’m still scared. I mean; I love him more than anything in this world, but I’ve heard the stories about people pushing others away because they made it seem so obvious. He’s such a kind and generous man and I don’t want to pressure him. At the same time, I know that I want to make him happy. I just don’t know how,” Melanie whispered.

“You know he’s not happy?” Maggie asked.

Melanie nodded her gaze unable to meet that of her foster mother. “He told me about his sister and he said that he hadn’t seen her since he was a kid.”

“Is that what you wanted to ask me about?” Maggie asked. “Helping him to find her?”

“Yes, I wanted to see if there was a way for me to find her for him, but Mrs. Richardson, I don’t really know where to start.”

“Well, you can start by calling me ‘Maggie’,” she began.

“You really want me to address you that way?”

“Well sure, I mean; it stands to reason since you’re an adult and your boyfriend calls me by my first name anyway,” Maggie said.

“My b-boyfriend,” Melanie whispered under her breath.

“He is your boyfriend, Melanie, and he has acknowledged that in ways that you perhaps don’t even realize.” As Maggie watched an insecure look wash over the younger woman’s face, she reached over and touched the Melanie’s shoulder. “Why don’t we leave the dishes for a spell and finish our little talk at the table?”

Melanie nodded slowly, but heeded Maggie’s suggestion. Once they were seated, the older woman looked at her foster daughter. “What is it that really has you so troubled?”

“I don’t know, I guess I’m afraid,” Melanie confessed.

“Because of Willy?” she asked.

Melanie nodded. “I just keep asking myself if what I feel is nothing more than infatuation for an image and not real love. You know that ever since the first of October, I have spoken of him as though I was a teenager fawning over a rock star.”

As she was speaking, she cast a brief glance over towards the kitchen door. She knew that she would have been mortified if Willy had overheard what she was saying. Somehow having said these words made her feel a little bit better. It was as though she had admitted her greatest fear.

Eventually, she lowered her head and stared down at her hands, but when the sound of the door opening and closing did not emerge, she felt herself relaxing somewhat.

“What do you see when you look at him?” Maggie asked directly. “I mean; what did you see when you helped him out of the flower box nearly two weeks ago?”

Melanie closed her eyes as a shy smile tugged at the corners of her lips. “I didn’t see a famous person if that’s what you mean.”

“What did you see, Melanie?” she repeated her question, the urgency in her words filling the kitchen.

“I saw someone who is genuinely warm, caring, and wise getting hurt. At that moment I realized that it was someone I cared for and that whole fame thing was just excess baggage,” she whispered. “I was confused, but I knew that I cared for him. After he had confronted me that night at the factory, I guess I couldn’t forget what he had said and how it was true. I guess that’s why I’m so confused.”

“He confronted you?” Maggie asked.

Melanie looked down at the tabletop, her expression contorting to that of shame. “He was afraid that I was using him,” she said taking a deep breath. “After he had heard from Ben that I liked him, he drew his own conclusions about me. That was the day he agreed to bring Sarah and me to the factory. He said that I was only there for her sake and it hurt so badly. He could see through every story I had ever told. I guess, ever since that day, I’ve been trying to prove to him that I’m actually worthy of his love.”

Maggie nodded, “so basically all of this has done is left you in an emotional tailspin.”

“I guess,” she whispered as the unshed tears stung her eyes. “When we went out walking earlier, I realized that he could do or say anything and my heart would still belong to him; even if it was something that hurt like hell. I guess I realized that I just am not sure if I’m the one who can make him happy.” She lowered her head.

“I want you to listen to me for a few minutes, alright?” When the younger woman nodded, she continued. “You have spent the last few weeks trying to make Willy happy. You just told me that you wanted to help him find his sister because you believe that that would do it. I know that you feel beneath him, and perhaps you’re trying to do something right, but this is for all the wrong reasons.”

“What do you mean?” Melanie whispered.

“Well, among other things, I think it would be a foolish assumption for me to say that you have not been successful. In fact, I would say that you have given him a virtual light in his lonely existence. This is something that none of us can begin to understand or recognize because we are not him and we have not had his life experiences.”

Melanie remained quiet as Maggie continued. “Melanie, it doesn’t matter how close we get to him or how much trust builds between us. The truth lies in the fact that none of us have experienced the level of betrayal, hurt, anguish, and sorrow that Willy Wonka has endured for much of his life. Standing by him and trying to understand his feelings is a step that many women would love to take. The reality is that you alone have actually embarked upon that particular journey. Don’t sell yourself short, honey, you’re a good girl and he sees that, just as I do.”

“But, I lied to him, just as I lied to you about the job and everything that happened when I was away from home,” Melanie objected. “I’m so afraid that he may one day wake up and realize that I am not able to give him the joy that he deserves or needs. Or even worse, what if no matter what I do, I still can’t measure up?”

“What sort of rubbish are you talking about?” Maggie asked, her question causing Melanie to meet her piercing gaze. “My dear, I knew about the job issue long before you even came and told me about what had happened. But, I never stopped loving or caring for you because of it. I could understand perfectly well why it was you were afraid. You wanted to be a success and you measured your worth in accomplishment instead of simply achieving what you set out to do. I could also tell every time we spoke to one another that you were concealing something from me. I know you that well, Melanie. I also believe that given the fact that he is a very sensible person, Willy knows you as well.” She paused and took a deep breath before continuing.

“I know that you have felt inadequate for much of your life, and I will say that Willy is perhaps one of the very few people who can understand as well as relate to that.” She rested her hand on Melanie’s shoulder. “He told me only last week that he wanted to give you far more than just a necklace because you had given him the ‘Christmas spirit’ and that cannot be bought with money. Don’t you see what an invaluable gift that is? It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, young or old, it’s still there and you shared it willingly. The spirit of love is something that every person can give and share, and you did so by sharing it with a heart that was just as lonely as your own.”

“S-so what you’re saying is that he really does care for me, and it isn’t just a figment of my imagination?” Melanie asked weakly.

“It has never been like that and I think deep down inside you know it,” Maggie said smiling. “Do you know what the terms of love are? To love someone so much is to go the extra mile for them; to do for them as though you are doing for God.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that before,” Melanie whispered. “And that’s why I have to follow through with the promise I made to help him find his sister. Will you help me?”

“I’ll do whatever I can,” the older woman said. “How long has it been since Willy last saw her?”

“He said it’s been over twenty years, and he doesn’t know where she is or where to start looking. But, I can tell that he’s positively miserable without her. The only thing I know is that her name is Wanda, but other than that; nothing.”

Maggie looked at her. “You will have to find out as much information as you can. You need her birth date as well as where she was born. It’s not going to be easy with Willy’s notoriety. That is; we’re going to have to do it without the press catching wind of it. I don’t think we want to make his life even more of a media circus than it already is.”

Melanie looked at her. “You’re not angry with him for not telling us that he still had family?”

“To my mind, he’s still an orphan as he has had to live out his life without the love and support of his parents. This is something that we must take into consideration,” Maggie said as she got up from the table. “I’ll tell you what; if we can find out something about Willy’s sister, maybe we can work together on this. I’ll use whatever influences I have to help you both along, but it’s going to be up to you to try and see what it is you can dig up when you go back to the factory. I know that it seems rather sneaky, but something tells me that Willy will be somewhat hesitant about letting us take on his past like this.”

Maggie looked meaningfully at Melanie, but continued speaking. “We both know that he may seem hard as nails when dealing with Bob or talking about fixing up the house, but something tells me that Willy Wonka still has his own level of sensitivity to contend with and I don’t want to put that boy through more than he’s already been through.”

Melanie smiled. “You always call him a ‘boy’, but he’s older than me.”

“Perhaps, but for an old hen like me, Willy is still very much a boy. He’s become one of my kids, just like you’ve always been,” Maggie smiled as she put her arm around Melanie’s shoulder. “Don’t forget that.”

“I’ll try not to,” she whispered as she returned Maggie’s embrace.

“Now, I take it we still have something that needs tending,” the house mother said as the embrace loosened.

“What?” Melanie asked.

“We have to get Mark’s bedding into the living room, unless, of course, you and Willy want to share the guest room with him. Frankly, I’m not so keen on the idea of him being there when I know that you and Willy will want to do a fair share of cuddling before the lights go out.” Maggie gave the younger woman a knowing smile.

“Maggie!” Melanie practically shouted.

“Oh come now, Melanie, you are a woman, not a little girl. It would not be wise of me to judge or push outdated rules onto you. Besides, I happen to think that during the time you have been staying at the factory, you are not sleeping in separate beds,” Maggie nudged her.

“Alright,” Melanie said blushing. “I’ll help you take Mark’s bedding into the living room, but shouldn’t we get the kitchen cleaned up first?”

“Perhaps you’re right,” Maggie said.

Melanie nodded. “This time I am because I know for a fact that these walls have ears.”

Maggie giggled but offered a confirming nod.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: The Past and the Future**

The following morning, Melanie opened her eyes yawned and stretched. Lying next to her on the bed was Willy, his arm draped casually over the pillow as soft sighs emerged from between his pursed lips. The day had dawned sunny with a blue sky over a snowy landscape.

From the bed she could see the remaining flurries outside the window, perhaps falling from the eave of the house. She watched for several moments as they fell softly against the window, only to melt after a second had passed.

Instead of moving, Melanie’s attention shifted and she buried her face once more against Willy’s back. At that moment, she did not feel too terribly inclined to move away from his warmth.

Soon, however, she raised her head to glance over at the clock that was on the bedside table. It read that it was several minutes after ten in the morning. _Oh dear,_ she thought, _Willy is not going to be happy at the prospect of sleeping so late when he has been talking about getting back to work today._

She started to push the covers aside and crawl out of bed before padding her way towards the door. Abruptly, she stopped when Willy’s voice emerged from beneath the mountain of blankets. “Melly, you don’t have to be so quiet, I’m awake.”

“Good morning,” she said as she turned back around and made her way back over to the bed. Sitting down on the edge, she shyly looked over at him. “I should have gotten up sooner;” she whispered apologetically.

“It’s alright,” he said softly. “I could grow rather accustomed to your brand of distraction and strange hours. Come back under the covers, I need a cuddle.” He smiled brightly at her, but watched as she obliged. As she inched her way closer to him, she reached out and allowed a single lock of his curly hair to wind casually around her finger.

“But, I made you late,” she whispered.

“Not really, today is Sunday, I don’t work on Sundays,” he smiled gently at her.

“But last night you were saying that you would have to work today,” she whispered.

“That was before Mark informed me that last night was Saturday and that I would have an extra day off. During holidays, I tend to lose track of what day it is,” he said smirking at her. “Try not to worry, Melanie.”

“I do that a lot though,” she whispered as he leaned towards her and allowed his lips to brush gently against her own.

“Perhaps I did my part to help with that,” he whispered as he tightened his hold and allowed the kiss to deepen. Seconds later, it broke, but she could taste the remnants of chocolate and wine that remained. At that moment, Melanie pondered if there was such a thing as ‘morning breath’ in Willy’s linguistic capacity. Not caring, she gave him another kiss, all the while hoping that he would not be able to taste the dryness she experienced after having drank too much wine the night before and getting somewhat tipsy from it.

“Did you sleep well?” he eventually asked.

“Yes,” she responded, her voice soft, but there was an almost swooning essence in the single word answer. “Didn’t we have that discussion yesterday? I mean; I should probably be the one asking you since you are in my home.”

The chocolatier pushed up from off the pillow and looked at her. “Is this still your home, Melly? Or have you managed to find yourself a new one?” As his question emerged, she could not help but notice how his voice had not faltered and his eyes were staring intently into her own.

“I don’t know,” she whispered all the while knowing what he was getting at, but afraid to even begin to hope that her home could actually have become the factory without her even realizing it. Now that he was tangible to her, she did not know if she could dare to hope that she would come to mean as much to him as he meant to her. At the same instant, she knew that to affirm those words to him were somehow harder than the days when she had tried to keep her occupational failure under wraps.

As Maggie’s words from the night before filtered back through her mind, she watched as he reached for her hand. Surrendering it, she could feel the goose bumps literally encompassing her as he brought it to his lips and touched it softly. This action made her want to throw herself into his arms, but restraining herself, she simply whispered his name. “Willy?”

“Hmmm,” he mumbled, his attention still on her hand, his eyes closed as though in apt contemplation.

“What did you mean?” she whispered as she slid her hand out of his grasp and watched as he raised his head and looked at her.

“You mean, just now?” he asked. When she nodded, he continued. “I know that you have been spending a good deal of time with me at the factory, but I would like for it to be official. Would you to come to the factory, not as a guest, but as someone who might be able to call it ‘home’? Would you ever consider that as an option?”

Melanie looked at him. “Is that really what you would want?”

“I may be considered somewhat daffy, but I always know what I want,” he whispered. “I first understood this when I recognized the impact that you were having on me. Of course, I would only want this if you were to consent to it.” He paused before he found the words to continue. “I don’t want you to give up the things that you love for my sake, but I would hope that you would never believe that I intended for you to be as reclusive as I have been. Perhaps it is selfish of me to even inquire since I need you to show me what the real world is like. I cannot hide myself in the shadows forever and I realized that the moment we met.”

“You wouldn’t want to go back to the way things were before then?” she asked.

“No, I wouldn’t,” he said. “As much as I know about love, which is not very much, but I do know that I love you with all my heart. Just tell me truthfully if you ever consider this an option.”

Melanie raised her head. “Oh Willy,” she whispered his name as she felt herself once more drawn into his arms. “I would never wish to impose on you. I know that moving in to live with another person is like taking a huge step and I didn’t want you to think that it was what I intended…” her voice trailed off as she felt his fingertips lightly pressed against her lips and cutting off the flow of words.

“…I know it wasn’t,” he interrupted her as he gently lowered his hand from her lips. “My dear, you know I would never believe you to be one with ulterior motives.” He smiled gently as his next question emerged. “Would you be willing?”

Melanie looked at him, her eyes filling with tears. “I want to, but…I’m afraid.”

“Then we’ll wait,” he said smiling. “One thing I have learned in this business is to be patient when waiting for the desired results.”

“I just don’t think I’m deserving of your kindness…” she began.

“…But you are,” he objected. “If only you could be as confident about yourself as you were about Christmas. Last week, you made me believe in the beauty of the holidays, and now it would seem that I am given the task of making you believe in the beauty that you are.”

Instead of speaking, she lowered her head as she felt his arms once more pulling her against him. “Willy?” she eventually murmured his name.

“Melly?” He spoke her name in the very same manner, the cadence of words causing her to relax. When she did, he continued speaking. “What is it?”

“I just want to help you find Wanda,” she whispered. “I thought that maybe if I were to help you with that, then I wouldn’t feel like such a failure.”

Willy backed out of the embrace. He could see the tears of dejection streaming down over her cheeks. Leaning over, he used his thumbs to brush the moisture away. “Oh for goodness sakes, you’re not a failure. Why would you even believe that?”

She closed her eyes, but kept her head lowered. “I don’t know.”

“I suppose I will have to do whatever I can to convince you otherwise,” he said, the smile never leaving his face. “Perhaps that could prove to be a rather amusing hobby for me. But, please, finish what you intended to say.”

“I was just wondering if you could tell me something else about Wanda that you remember,” she whispered, and watched as Willy backed up and looked at her. “I know that you didn’t expect me to mention it again, but Maggie and I talked about helping you find her last night, and we don’t want to keep this a secret from you. We need to know when her birthday is and where she was born.”

“Why?”

“Because Maggie’s got some contacts that might be able to help us,” she began. “There’s a group that has formed here in London that helps adopted children find their birth parents. We both figured that it might actually help us track her down,” Melanie explained. “When I turned eighteen, these services were offered to me, but I refused them.”

“You did?” he asked.

“Yes,” she nodded. “I figured that since I didn’t like what I remembered about my parents, I’d just let it go,” she shrugged her shoulders.

Willy smiled sheepishly as he brushed a hand through her hair. “I didn’t expect you to get involved in all of this,” he confessed softly. “In fact, it feels rather strange for me to know that you care so much about me that you’d be willing to take this on.”

“I guess I became involved the moment you brought me to the factory the very first time. To share one’s home also means to share one’s burdens and worries,” she whispered, her gaze locked on him. “So can you tell me what you know?”

“Wanda was born on the twenty-first of May, forty-two years ago. She was born at the hospital in Kensington, and our parents were named Wilbur and Hannah,” Willy said softly.

Melanie looked at him and smiled gently as they heard someone tapping lightly on the door and Willy backed away, his eyes closing slightly as he spoke. “Come in, it’s safe.”

As the door opened, they immediately recognized Bob Richardson as he peered around the door and made eye contact with Willy. “H-hi,” he managed to speak, his voice soft, but instead of being fearful, he walked slowly into the room, his eyes seeking theirs. “I was kind of wondering if we could talk.” He was looking at Melanie, but she could tell that the teenager was meaning Willy. She smiled as she crawled off the bed.

Is the bathroom freed up?” she asked. When the boy nodded, she made her way towards the door. “Then I will excuse myself so you two can have some ‘guy talk’. Just don’t talk about me while I’m gone.”

“We’ll try to restrain ourselves,” Willy smirked as she left the room.

~~~~~

Once Melanie was gone, instead of immediately speaking, he smoothed out the blankets and patted them, indicating that Bob could come over and sit down.

The boy closed the door before coming further into the room, his hesitancy indicative in the slow manner in which he approached where the chocolatier was seated. Without making an issue of it, Willy spoke. “What’s on your mind, Bob?”

“I’ve been thinking about Christmas and the Golden Ticket that you gave to me,” Bob admitted, his voice barely audible.

“You’re wondering why I gave it to you, aren’t you?” Willy asked. His voice had taken on the same tone of voice as that when speaking with Charlie about the things that made his apprentice feel insecure.

“I guess so,” Bob nodded. “I always thought that people had to earn it whenever something good happened. You know that I haven’t always been very nice to people, I wasn’t even nice to you when we first met.”

Willy nodded. “All was forgiven when we spoke on Christmas, Bob. I know that you didn’t really know how to cope with your anger. Perhaps now you can because there is someone who can help you if you need to vent.”

“Maybe, but what if I start acting like a jerk again?” he asked.

“I’ll let you know,” Willy said smiling. “Just look at it this way, you haven’t done anything cruel or mean to anyone since your father returned, so perhaps that stage is behind you,” Willy said as he inhaled and released the breath slowly. “Do you remember when I started telling stories to the kids a week ago? You said something that really came to mean a lot to me.”

“I did?”

“You called me ‘Uncle Willy’,” he said. “I never had a nephew before, and prior to the whole Golden Ticket thing, I didn’t really know how to behave around kids.”

“You didn’t?” Bob asked.

Willy shook his head. “No, I didn’t.”

Bob looked at him. “That’s strange because I always figured that you were the kind of guy who could do no wrong. It was pretty obvious that everyone here loves you. It sort of surprised me that you are spending so much time here. I always figured that you had more relatives and contacts than a dog had fleas.”

“No, it may surprise you, but I don’t,” he said shaking his head. “Family wise, I have an older sister that I haven’t seen since I was your age. Melanie and your mom want to help me find her.”

“I didn’t know that,” Bob said softly. “How long has it been?”

“Twenty-two years,” he said.

“That means you’re 34.” Willy nodded as the boy continued. “I always thought…” His voice trailed off.

“…That I had it made?” Willy finished for him.

“Yeah, that and I figured that you were older than my dad,” Bob said as he flushed slightly.

“No, I’m not,” he said. “The thing is; coming here for Christmas was a really big step for me. It was the first time in years since I felt like I was a part of a real family. I have to admit that you helped me feel as though I belonged somewhere.”

“I did?” Bob asked.

“Yes, you did,” Willy said nodding.

The boy smiled upon hearing the chocolatier’s affirmation, but at the same instant, he could feel the tears as they got caught in his eyes. Willing himself not to cry, he raised his head and regarded the confectionary genius. “You’re really too nice for this world. I mean; it sounds stupid, but you’re like a friend to everyone you meet, even to people like me who don’t deserve it.”

“You do deserve it, Bob,” Willy said firmly. “Your father said it best when we spoke on Christmas. It takes a very mature and brave individual to realize the mistakes of the past. The realization is a gift in and of itself, and it is one that does not come along as rapidly as one would like to think. Never believe that you are less than extraordinary, Bob.”

“You know, if I was your sister, I’d be kicking myself hard for not being here,” the boy said solemnly. “I mean it; if I had a brother like you…”

Willy Wonka swallowed the knot in his throat at hearing the sincerity emerging from the boy. “…You wouldn’t call him ‘freak’ or ‘weirdo’ anymore, would you?”

Bob shook his head. “No, I’d call him my ‘best friend’.”

“Then you just answered the question that has been ravaging your mind since Christmas,” Willy said with an unhappy smile.

“I did?”

“Yes and the answer is, you did deserve that Golden Ticket, and we’re going to have a tour just as soon as we can find a date that fits both of our schedules,” he said.

The boy, instead of speaking, simply embraced the chocolatier as the door opened and Maggie peered into the room. “Willy, if you need in the bathroom, Melanie’s finished.”

“Thank you,” he said and started to crawl out from beneath the covers. “Bob, we’ll talk again, and who knows, maybe after the tour you could periodically stop in for a visit.”

“That sounds great,” the boy said as he quietly walked past his mother and left the room.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Weaving Magic**

Once Bob was gone, Maggie looked at Willy, her eyes bright as she regarded him. “How much magic do you intend on weaving today?” she asked as she came into the room and opened the blinds.

“I don’t know,” he smiled as he ran his hand through his unruly hair. “I didn’t intend to keep tabulations on it, actually.”

Turning back around, she smiled at him. “Well, no matter,” she began. “I have to say that you are truly a gift to everyone you meet.”

“Careful with your wording, Maggie, ‘gift’ in German means ‘poison’,” he smirked.

Maggie went over to where he was sitting on the bed. “You silly goose, you know what I mean.” She leaned over and pinched his cheek in very much the same way she had often done with her son.

“Yes, I know,” he said as he began to rub the affected area with the palm of his hand once she lowered her hand. “No more pinching, you don’t know your own strength, dear lady.”

“I’m sorry, that was a natural impulse,” Maggie said with a giggle. Seconds later, her expression became earnest as she regarded him. “Willy, I don’t want to upset you, but did Melanie tell you that she spoke with me last night about your sister?”

“She told me after we woke up this morning that the two of you had spoken of this. I am not quite certain if what I have to offer can help. It’s been over twenty years. We’ve both changed and I’m not really certain if she will even want to see me.”

“I know about those feelings; they stem from fear and uncertainty,” she said gently. “Let’s put our cards on the table and be completely honest with one another. All the rationalizing that goes on about taking this step is very common. You are experiencing what a lot of kids experience when it comes to searching for a family member. Believe me, I’ve helped countless children try and find their birth parents when they became old enough to do so. Their feelings are very much the same as yours are right now. You’re nervous, anxious, and afraid and for good reason, this is a huge step for you to take. I know that doing this might lead to heartache, but it also can lead you into something that is quite fortuitous.”

“You can really tell that I’m scared, can’t you?” he asked.

“You’re human and while you can weave magic with words and actions, it is your emotions that give you away,” she said gently.

“It’s been so many years,” he confessed. “I know that we both changed, but Maggie, Wanda never wrote or called me, and I was lonely without her.”

“Are you certain that she never wrote, or was there perhaps something that might have prevented her from contacting you?” she asked. “After all, you were twelve and sadly, there are adults who could have tipped the scales against you.”

“But, I was there,” he said plainly. “I would have known if there were letters arriving at the house.”

“Maybe, but tell me something, when you were in school, was it possible that some correspondences could have come and been hidden or sent back?” Maggie asked wisely. “I’m not asking you this to make the situation worse, but Willy, you did say at one time that your father’s dental practice was at your home.”

“It was,” he nodded. “But, what does that have to do with Wanda?”

“A great deal,” she said softly. “It means that perhaps your father might have been so angry and hurt by her leaving, that whatever she might have attempted to do to stay in touch with you could have been confiscated. Your father’s pain may have prevented you from contact with your sister, or even seeing her attempts.” She paused as she rested a gentle hand on his shoulder. “It does happen sometimes, especially when the family in question is dealing with personality conflicts or has problems getting along.”

He took a deep breath. “Melanie said that because of my fame that I should be the one looking for her, but I don’t know where she could be. The last thing I knew of her was that when she was eighteen, she wanted to move to Liverpool to live with some friends. I don’t know if she went or if she ended up somewhere else. She could have ended up anywhere and I would never have known.”

“Do you know the names of the friends she was intending on moving in with?” Maggie asked. “That might be a good place to start.”

“Leonard Jansen was one of them,” he said. “I don’t remember the other, but I think her name was a plant like Holly or Ivy or something like that. On the day she left, Wanda mentioned their names, but she didn’t go into detail about it. I figured that she was afraid that our father would find out what her intentions were and follow her there.”

“I see,” she whispered. “Willy, it’s going to be a shot in the dark, but perhaps we ought to go to Liverpool and see if we can find your sister’s friends.”

“What if they’re not there?” he asked.

“Well if they aren’t then we can always call the registry and put in some inquiries about Wanda…” she began.

“…I’d rather not,” he shivered. “If anyone in the press were to catch wind of this…”

“…Your life would become and even bigger media circus than it already is,” she finished for him. “This was a concern that both Melanie and I had when we spoke last night. The registry is sworn to secrecy about the people who use their services, but maybe you’re right.” She took a deep breath. “Of course you do realize that this is going to be even more difficult than finding a needle in a haystack.”

Willy nodded. “I know. I don’t mean to be so difficult, but you know that my life is complicated.”

“I know,” Maggie said with a nod as she reached over and took his hand in hers and gave it a motherly squeeze before releasing it and allowing her eyes to momentarily close. “Maybe there’s another way. I just remembered something that I had forgotten until you mentioned the name of your sister’s friends.”

“What?”

“It’s a long shot, but do you remember the day we went shopping for the Christmas presents?” she asked.

“Yes, it’s a wonderful memory, but what does this have to do with finding my sister?” he asked, confusion shadowing his face.

“Maybe it has nothing to do with it, but maybe it has everything to do with it. I remember there was something that happened at that department store that we went to right after we had stopped off for apple cider. I had gone off to buy some socks for one of the kids and when I returned, I noticed that you were speaking with a young woman who worked at the store.”

“Yes, but even after having read her name tag, I don’t really remember her name. I wrote it down, but the notebook is back at the factory and I don’t really see any connection,” Willy said.

Maggie looked at him. “Her name was Laura Jansen. I’ve seen her around the store whenever I would go in there to do my shopping. She’s an extremely helpful young woman as I am certain that you could attest to.”

“Yes, I know, she was the person who gave me her ornament so that I could give to you,” he said. “That’s how I managed to get one.”

“You had no extras lying around the factory?” she asked.

“No, after we designed them, Mr. Wilkenson sent them out for distribution and I didn’t think anything of it,” he said honestly. “Then I saw one in your hutch and found out that Melanie had given it to you, so when I saw them on the tree at the store, I wanted to get you one. Anyway, for whatever reason, she could tell that it was important, so she gave it to me.”

“She’s a very nice person, and perhaps that would be a good place to start our search,” Maggie said.

“I don’t want to impose on her,” Willy whispered, “it’s Sunday, the store is closed.”

“Then we’ll check the telephone directory and see about finding her that way. I’m almost certain that when she finds out who you are and what you are trying to find out, she will be more than willing to help,” Maggie said.

“I don’t want to be an imposition,” Willy objected.

“Well, then I’ll be one, you’re just going to be my cohort in mischief,” she smiled. “Consider this, a young woman who works in the candy department of an upscale department store would no doubt be chomping at the bit to have Willy Wonka himself come and knock at her front door. You’re running out of excuses, Willy, and in this game, you have to take whatever leads you can get.”

“I trust you,” he said. “I think you know that, Maggie.”

“Well, for starters, you can get your lazy bones out of that bed, get dressed, and meet me in the kitchen as soon as you’re done,” Maggie said getting to her feet. “We’ll get you some breakfast, and then we’ll find Laura Jansen’s address. Before you leave to go back home, we’re going to pay her a little visit.”

~~~~~

Downstairs, Melanie was putting the finishing touches on her and Willy’s breakfast. The children had already eaten, and the sink was piled high with the remnants of that. In fact, through the window, she could see that they were all outside taking full advantage of the snow that still lay on the ground.

Shifting her attention back to the dish washing chore, she began to hum softly under her breath as she dipped her hand into the hot, sudsy water and began to scrub one of the plates.

After about ten minutes had passed, Maggie came into the room with a large telephone directory in one hand and a pad of paper and pencil balancing in her other hand. As the younger woman turned around, she saw the familiar look of determination lining the house mother’s face.

“We got a lead,” Maggie announced happily as she seated herself at the table and began flipping through the pages of the directory.

“On Wanda?” Melanie asked. When Maggie nodded, the younger woman allowed the rag to slip through her fingers and land in the soapy water. She then dried her hands and hastily approached the table. “What is it?”

“Willy and I briefly met this girl at Hudson’s Department Store on Bond Street during that afternoon we went Christmas shopping. Her last name is, conveniently, Jansen and I’m checking the directory to see if there are any listings for her here in London,” she said.

“Why don’t you just check in the registry?” Melanie asked.

“I actually had thought about that and made the suggestion, but Willy was concerned about his name leaking to the press, and for good reason. Perhaps he figures that being such a high profile person that their knowing of his search might cause an imposition on him as well as his sister,” Maggie said. “Since none of us know how this lady has been living during the past twenty something years, I can only surmise that he is quite right for being this concerned.”

“So, we’re basically starting from scratch,” Melanie said.

Maggie nodded. “Yes, but we can still utilize the information he has provided us.”

As she was speaking, Willy came into the room. It looked as though the chocolatier had made a hasty attempt at getting dressed after Maggie had left their room. His face was unshaven and his hair was damp as though he had staged a battle of wits with it in front of the bathroom mirror.

Wordlessly, the chocolatier sat down at the table, his elbows resting on the flat surface. He watched as Maggie continued to flip her way through the directory. _This was it,_ he thought, _they were really going to help me find Wanda._ What he had once thought was hopeless was actually going to happen and for better or worse, he could only hope that Wanda Wonka actually wanted him to find her.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: Jealous Beaus and Surprises**

Several hours later, Willy, Maggie, and Melanie stood outside the door to a small studio flat. The building itself was rustic and old, but that did not seem to matter. They entered the front door and made their way through the corridor. As they reached a wooden door with a Christmas wreath, Maggie nodded as she read the name that was just above the doorbell. Etched there was the single letter, L followed by the surname Jansen.

Melanie looked at Willy, all the while sensing that he was not certain as to whether or not this was the right thing to do. Most people were not accustomed with having a group of strangers come and ring their doorbell from out of the blue, much less during a holiday weekend.

There was something inside of him that seemed to be saying that it was odd for them to be there, or that the woman on the other side of the door would consent to helping strangers with such an outlandish project as this.

Willy closed his eyes as Maggie reached over and rang the doorbell. He exchanged nervous glances with Melanie as the door abruptly opened and he found himself looking across the threshold at a pair of unfamiliar brown eyes.

“Yeah!” the voice that emerged was so unlike the one he had heard at the shopping center, that he feared that they had unearthed the wrong address.

“Is this the home of Laura Jansen?” Maggie asked, her voice indicative that she was not going to let the man’s intimidating demeanor get in the way of them finding out what they needed to know.

The man grunted and nodded. “So what if it is?”

“My name is Maggie, and this is William and Melanie,” the older woman began. “We need to speak with Laura Jansen.”

“What do you want with her?” he asked.

“We just want to talk to her for a minute,” Willy said.

“Talk?” the skeptical question emerged as the man looked at Willy.

“Yes, just to talk,” Willy’s immediate response emerged. Instead of speaking further, he suddenly felt Melanie’s arm wrapping possessively around his. Willy returned the gesture, but watched as the man’s demeanor switched and he backed away from the front door.

“I’ll get her,” he said gruffly, “wait here.”

As soon as he was gone, Melanie looked at Willy. “Jealous boyfriend, he probably thought you were competition for Laura’s affections.”

“That’s absurd,” Willy muttered.

“Not really, jealousy tends to do that to people. To him, other men represent competition for Laura’s love. I must say that I never could understand that sort of thing, but that’s sometimes what comes about in cases such as these,” Maggie said wisely. “At any rate, when he saw Melanie wrapping her arm around you, his defense melted away like a snowball in July.”

Willy shrugged his shoulders as the girl from the department store appeared in the doorway and took in her guests.

“Hiya,” she began as she looked at each of them in turn. When her gaze came to rest on Willy, she continued. “What are you doing here?”

Instead of Willy responding, Maggie did. “We’re hoping you can help us. We just spent the bulk of the morning trying to find you.”

“Me?” she asked clearly confused. “But…why?”

Maggie took a deep breath and began her practiced explanation. “I remembered your name when my friend and I were doing our Christmas shopping. Right now you could say that we’re trying to grasp at straws. You do remember William, don’t you?”

“Of course, how are you?” she asked.

“I’m alright, but I must ask you to forgive the intrusion,” Willy began. “It’s rather a long story as to why we’re here, but it’s a very important one.”

“Is it about the ornament?” she asked. “It didn’t break, did it?”

“No, it’s something else,” he said as he closed his eyes.

“William is looking for his older sister,” Melanie supplied, but cast a wary glance around the corridor before turning back to face Laura. “Is there some place we can talk privately? I’m not quite certain that this is the best place for us to explain why we’re here.”

Laura cast a glance back into the flat and then without warning, she backed away and reached for her coat. “Bruce, I’m going out for a walk, I’ll be back in about an hour.”

Without waiting for him to respond, she pulled on her coat and closed the door. “Come on, there’s a deli that’s open not too far from here and we can grab a cup of coffee or something and talk. I figure that you probably don’t want to sit around here with Bruce while he’s watching football on the telly,” she smiled impishly at them. “This also keeps me occupied so I don’t have to watch sports all day.”

Willy nodded as they started to make their way down the hallway and out the front door.

Outside, they could feel the breeze against their faces, but Willy hung back not quite certain as to what he should say. His thoughts were still reeling as he contemplated what specifically had happened back at Laura’s front door.

Laura looked at Melanie at that moment. She had watched as Willy distanced himself and she took a deep breath. “Your friend seems rather upset.”

“He’s worried,” Melanie admitted. “I think he was quite hesitant about coming and disrupting your Sunday afternoon.”

“Oh forget that,” Laura said as she turned around and looked at Willy, who seemed to be walking with a slouch, but his stance was still taller than she. Hanging back, she waited for him to catch up with her. When he did, she reached out and touched his shoulder. This caused him raise his head slightly. “You didn’t disturb me by coming at all. I’m really very happy to see you again and at least now we can talk without my having to consider the rules I have to abide by at work.” She paused for several moments and then continued. “If it makes you feel any better, I’d otherwise be at home alone today.”

“What about Mister Congeniality?” Willy asked.

“He’d like to think that I’m his girlfriend, but I know the only reason he’s hanging around my place is because his telly is broken. Last night he rang me and insisted on coming to my flat to watch the games there. Sports are boring to me, so anything to get out of watching them is a welcomed distraction.”

Willy nodded, but offered no response.

Further down the street, Maggie and Melanie had stopped and were waiting for Laura and Willy to catch up. Once they did, Laura motioned towards a small delicatessen. As Laura opened the door, she waved with one hand for them to enter. “This is where I go for a little bit of quiet time,” she said as they stepped inside the old-fashioned dining area.

Ironically, the place was empty except for them, which was rather nice for Willy. As he started to take in the atmosphere, he detected an almost Victorian sort of feel to it. This reminded him of how he and Melanie had been dressed during Christmas. If they had shown up in those clothes, then they would have matched the ambiance perfectly.

Of course, right at that moment, Willy was dressed in dark colored trench coat, pants, a shirt, and sweater, and Melanie was wearing a woolen skirt, blouse and blazer under her coat.

Laura went over and ordered something at the counter as Maggie looked at Willy. “You have to ask her if she is of any relation to the people your sister moved in with. That may be your best option, Willy.”

“I don’t know,” the chocolatier said, his words consumed with worry.

“Maybe you should,” Melanie whispered. “After all, if you don’t talk to her about this, then I will. You have to try whatever options you have and this whole hesitancy thing isn’t going to help you find Wanda.”

Willy nodded and watched as Laura came back over to them but her hands were loaded down with a large pot of coffee and a plateful of pastries. As the sweetness of the pastries filled the chocolatier’s nose, he smiled slightly.

“Please, do sit down,” Laura said as she placed the large plate in the center of the table. She then watched as the three of them seated themselves at the table before she returned to the counter, only to return with four plates, cups, and saucers.

“This looks wonderful,” Maggie said.

“No great credit to me, my parents actually own the deli, and I come here to help out or to study,” Laura said. “But, something tells me that you are not here to talk about the history of this place, though. What’s going on?”

“The reason we need to talk to you is because we’re trying to find William’s older sister,” Maggie said.

“Maybe you should go to the police,” Laura offered.

“We can’t,” Willy said.

Maggie nodded in concurrence with his words. “I know that this must sound really strange to you, but the only clue we have to go on is your last name.”

Laura nodded, but slowly she turned and looked at Willy. “Your name is William?” She asked her words soft as she tried to sort out what had been said. “Then it really is true…You really are…”

“…It’s true, the little girl that you heard at your workplace just before Christmas was right,” Willy said softly. “My name is Willy Wonka.”

“And you need _my_ help with something?” Laura asked, but without missing a beat, she broke into a smile and looked at him, her eyes filled with happiness. “What can I do to help you, Mr. Wonka?”

Willy looked at her. “I don’t know if you can do anything, Laura; it may be a hopeless cause and our coming here could reap absolutely nothing.”

“Those are some of the best kinds of causes, because sometimes they actually do work out and become a surprise to all parties involved,” she said, but instead of speaking further, she picked up one of the plates and managed to serve him a piece of the cake. “Here, my mum baked this herself.” She placed the plate before him and watched as he reached for a fork.

“What’s your mother’s name, Laura?” Maggie asked.

“Raven,” she said. “She was named that because she was born with raven black hair. My grandfather was a pretty funny guy and he thought the name was interesting. I don’t think it was because of her hair though. I always thought that it happened that way because he read too many poems by Edgar Allen Poe.”

“Is there a Leonard Jansen in your family?” Willy asked.

“Yes, my parents told me that when I was younger that I had an uncle named Leonard, but I haven’t seen him in years. He lives in Liverpool, and because of the weather during Christmas, he was unable to come down to see us,” Laura said as she filled a second plate and placed one in front of Maggie. “To be completely honest, I don’t really know him that well. Mum said that he had been married once, but she didn’t know what his wife’s name was or what had happened to her.”

Willy took a deep breath as disappointment washed over him. Laura reached over and touched his hand. “You can’t give up, Mr. Wonka, there’s bound to be a way for you to find her.”

I don’t know if there is, you see, Leonard Jansen was my only lead,” he said.

Laura stood up. “Well, then I guess the only thing that I can do is call my uncle and ask him if he knows your sister. What’s her name?”

“Wanda,” he said.

“I’ll be right back,” she smiled as she got to her feet and went over to the counter.

~~~~~

Once she was gone, Willy looked at his companions. “Do you think she’ll be able to find out anything?”

“I don’t know,” Maggie said, “but if she can’t maybe she can find out if there is someone who can.”

Melanie nodded. “I think she would do anything she could to help you. She seems like a very nice girl.”

“She is, but I’m not sure if she will be able to help,” he said as he took a bite of the cake that she had offered him. Once he had swallowed the bite, he smiled. “This is quite good.”

“I’m sure the proprietors would be overjoyed to hear you say that,” Maggie said as a little boy, no more than five-years-old approached the table, his eyes were wide and a candy bar was tightly clenched in his fist. He looked at each of them, but his gaze stayed on Willy.

“You look like my teacher,” the little boy said.

“Your teacher?” Willy said. “I’m afraid I don’t follow.”

“Yeah, you got curly hair just like she does,” he said as a woman came over to the table and smiled apologetically at the group.

“I’m terribly sorry that Tommy has interrupted your snack,” she said. “My sister, Laura is still on the phone and will be back in a few minutes.” She started to lead the child away, but Willy spoke up, his voice taking on an urgent cadence.

“Wait, maybe you and possibly your son can help me,” he said. “I don’t mean to intrude, but may I ask him a question.”

“Of course,” she said.

Instead of staying seated Willy stood up and backed his way away from the table. He then went over to the boy and crouched down so that he would be eye level with the child. “Will you tell me about your teacher?”

“I don’t remember her name,” the child said.

Laura’s sister nodded. “I remember meeting her, she introduced herself as Miss Smith, but I do recall that she was tall like you.”

“Is there anything you can tell me about her, anything at all?” Willy said. “What does she teach you?”

“She teaches me songs,” Tommy said.

“Songs?”

Instead of responding the little boy began to sing.

_Two and two are four_   
_Four and four are eight_   
_Eight and eight are sixteen_   
_Sixteen and sixteen are thirty-two…_

The chocolatier looked at Maggie and Melanie as a smile stretched its way across his face. Forgetting his worries, he began to sing along with the child.

_Inchworm, Inchworm,_   
_Measuring the marigolds_   
_You and your arithmetic_   
_You’ll probably go far._

_Inchworm, Inchworm,_   
_Measuring the marigolds_   
_Seems to me you’d stop and see_   
_How beautiful they are._

Moments later, the boy stopped singing and looked at Willy. “You know the song, just like she does.”

Willy nodded. “This is one of my favorite songs and when I was little; my sister would sing it to me. I think it was because she once had a crush on Danny Kaye.”

“Well, it is a classic song,” Maggie said smiling. “I loved that movie and watch it every time they play it.”

At that moment, Laura returned to the table, the woman’s face drawn in an unhappy smile. As she approached, they grew silent and Willy raised his head.

“Jessie,” she said to her sister, instead of addressing the group. “Uncle Leonard doesn’t want to talk to any of us. What else can I do?”

“It was a long shot, Laura, you know they estranged themselves from us years ago,” Jessie said.

“But, I thought that they were going to come back for Christmas,” Laura said.

Jessie took a deep breath. “No, they decided at the last minute that they preferred to ignore us so that’s what they did. I thought you knew.”

Laura shook her head. “I thought that everything would be okay.” As she spoke, she could feel the tears catching in her eyes.

Jessie wrapped a comforting arm around her sister and looked at Willy. “They haven’t had anything to do with our family in a very long time, and it’s been especially hard for Laura because she really liked our Aunt Rose.”

“I thought that maybe I could have helped you,” Laura said softly as she looked at Willy. “I’m sorry I blew it and I know that I must have completely dashed all your hopes.”

“No, Laura, you didn’t,” he said as he got to his feet and went over to her. “I do appreciate you trying, though.”

“But, if I’m your last hope then how can I find out anything about Wanda if he won’t talk to any of us?” Laura asked.

Willy took a deep breath as Jessie’s eyes widened and before he could so much as say a word, she looked at her sister. “Laura, did you say he is trying to find someone named Wanda?”

“Yes, she’s Mr. Wonka’s sister,” Laura said.

Jessie took a deep breath. “Maybe Leonard Jansen isn’t your last hope after all. Laura, Tommy’s morning kindergarten teacher’s first name is Wanda. She’s tall, like Mr. Wonka, and she has the same unruly hair. I met her when Tommy got registered at the school.”

Willy took a deep breath as he looked at Jessie. “But you said that her surname was Smith.”

“Maybe she got married,” Melanie said. “I mean; if the teacher sings the same songs as your sister, then maybe it’s the same person and we won’t have to look too terribly far.”

“Alright then, how can we contact her?” Maggie asked.

“I don’t really know,” Jessie said as she watched her son wander back over towards the counter at the front of the shop. “School won’t reconvene until the twelfth. That’s ten days from now.”

“Then I suppose we will have to wait,” Willy said softly. “But, even if I do show up at the school, it could create problems. The possibility exists that this could be a coincidence and she is not really my sister, then it could still cause her to get a great deal of unwanted attention.”

“He’s right,” Melanie said. “If we’re going to test the theory, then we need to make sure that she is away from the school when we do it.”

Maggie nodded in concurrence. In the back of her mind she hoped that this Wanda Smith was Willy’s sister. He could not handle anymore disappointments and she knew beyond any doubt that this one would have been too much for him.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: Coincidences**

At the same time Willy, Melanie, and Maggie were meeting and speaking with Laura and Jessie, Mark had left the children’s home and returned to the building where he lived. As he came up the stairs and reached the front door, he could suddenly hear the sounds of the phone beginning to ring. Shifting the keys around in his hand, he managed to find the right one and hastily unlocked the front door.

 _Please let the phone keep ringing until I at least get inside and can answer the call,_ he thought to himself as he managed to shove his way through the front door and into the flat. Snatching the phone from off the cradle, he placed it against his ear and spoke. “Hello?” his single word emerged somewhat out of breath.

“Hello. Is this Mark?” The somewhat shy sounding voice at the other end of the line emerged and his eyes widened in happy surprise. It was her, the lady he escorted through the park the night before.

“Yes, it is who is calling?” he asked knowing that saying her name would perhaps make her feel awkward.

“It’s Wanda,” she began. “I don’t mean to disturb you, but, after you gave me your card, I figured that you might be home and that it was okay for me to call.”

“Well, yes I just got in,” he responded as he shimmied out of his coat. “How was your New Year’s celebration?”

“I suppose it was alright,” she said. “I’m actually calling to thank you for walking with me yesterday. It was very nice of you and I’m almost certain that it made you late.”

“Think nothing of it,” he said with a casual wave of his hand. “So, are you doing anything special today?”

“No, I haven’t any plans at the moment,” she said casually. “I had actually thought about driving out in the direction of Cornwall and renting a vacation flat for the next week, but I’m still undecided. The weather has basically decided not to cooperate. Right now, the severe weather warnings have pretty much made the decision for me. It feels like a waste to stay here since I have ten more days before I’m due back to work.”

“That sounds like an ideal vacation to me,” Mark said. “If it works out then you have a wonderful few days planned.”

“Yes well, I was sort of wondering if you had anything planned for this afternoon,” she said. “I would understand if you had a prior engagement.”

“No, I’m actually on my own right now,” he said. “As I told you yesterday, I was at my sister’s place and ended up staying the night. I just got back when you called.” He paused as he looked at the outdated calendar that was still hanging on the wall. “How about we meet at Piccadilly Circus and go have some coffee and a piece of cake? I know this really great deli near the High Street.”

“That sounds really nice,” she said. “I live on Cherry Street and the tube station is not far from here. Would an hour be alright with you?”

Mark smiled and nodded. “That sounds perfect. It only takes me ten minutes to get there from here, so that will give me some time to get ready.”

“I’ll meet you there then,” she said.

After they hung up, Mark was smiling as he made his way down the hallway to his bedroom in order to change clothes and get ready for his spontaneous date.

~~~~~

An hour later, Wanda was standing and waiting for Mark to arrive. She had not figured on someone like him wanting to meet with her so quickly after their first encounter. Somehow, it made her happy to think that he would like her regardless of her background or who she happened to be related to.

She removed her scarf and stuffed it into the side pocket of her purse as she watched the couples walking past the shop. After about five minutes of waiting, she could see that Mark was coming towards her, his eyes scanning the area, no doubt looking for her.

“Hi,” he said as he reached where she was standing and offered a half nod.

“Hello Mark,” she smiled slightly as he opened the door and they entered. Approaching the counter, she regarded the various kinds of cakes and pies that were displayed behind the glass.

“Yes, what can I get for you?” the bakery attendant asked.

“What do you have from the Wonka factory?” Mark asked. “His chocolate is the best and I happen to be a tad bit partial. Of course, I’m not sure if he produces cakes and pastries though.” He cast a quick glance at Wanda as his thoughts drifted back to the events at the children’s home the day before.

“We have a chocolate fudge cake that was made with the Wonka baker’s chocolate. Would that be satisfactory?” the attendant asked.

“That would be fine by me,” Mark said. “What about you, Wanda? Are you game to try something richer than me? That’s not saying much since I haven’t gotten a rich or famous client yet.” She smiled at his attempt at a joke, but watched as he flashed a winning smile and pointed to a group of tables. “Why don’t you go pick a table and I’ll bring the snacks?”

Wanda smiled weakly, but instead of objecting, she started to walk over to one of the tables and seated herself. She took a deep breath as she stared across the table at the various placards that graced it. She reached over and picked up a triangular shaped object and ran her hand over the writing that covered the page. The neat script bore the words: _Coming Soon: Wonka Industries Presents, the Chocolate Paradise Dessert._

Wanda stared at the object, her eyes closing slightly. It would seem that no matter where she went in town, she would be reminded of the fact that her brother was close enough but also far beyond her reach.

She allowed her thoughts to drift for several moments. When Mark came over to the table, she was abruptly brought back to the present when he placed two pieces of cake on the table. He then retrieved two mugs of specialty coffee. “If you like cream or sugar, they’re on the table,” he said when he returned and seated himself across from her.

Wordlessly, Wanda reached for the creamer while Mark took a long sip of the black coffee. As she stirred some of the milky substance into her drink, she released an unhappy sigh.

“What’s on your mind?” Mark asked as he lowered the cup. “I mean; if you don’t mind my asking; you look a bit lost in space.”

“I’m just thinking about…stuff,” she said struggling with the last word. What would Mark say or think if she were to confess to him what was really on her mind? Would he make the connection between Willy Wonka and her overt melancholy stance? Whatever the case, she was not sure about what to say, so she opted to saying nothing at all.

“This cake is wonderful,” Mark eventually spoke as he casually stabbed his fork into the pastry and managed to separate a bite. Taking it, he smiled as he chewed. “You know, it never ceases to amaze me how wonderful a job one man can do in creating something simple like a piece of chocolate cake.”

“I’m sorry, but who do you mean?” Wanda asked.

“Willy Wonka,” he said as he leaned across the table towards her, his voice lowering in a conspirator’s whisper. “What’s totally amazing is that I actually met him yesterday.”

“You… _met_ him?” Wanda asked her voice much softer than she intended.

“Yeah, and it came as a huge surprise to me,” Mark said. “I actually met him and he is nothing like the press had reported at all.”

“He’s not?” Wanda asked. “We what’s he like?”

“Well, for starters, he’s genuinely a very nice guy. He has a bit of an odd sense of humor, but then again, I don’t really have the market cornered on normalcy in that department either,” he said smirking as he took another bite of the cake and chewed it slowly before swallowing it.

“How did it come about?” she asked.

“He’s friends with my older sister and has been helping her and my brother-in-law out. They run one of the local children’s homes here in town,” he said. “I guess even people we might consider to live a charmed existence don’t. From what I understand, Willy was orphaned when his family turned their back on him. Can you imagine such a thing? During the evening, he told my sister that he spent most of his teenage years in an orphanage.”

“It can’t be,” Wanda said with an unhappy shake of her head. “I mean; what about his father? Where is he?”

“I have no idea, but I can tell you this; any father who leaves their 13-year-old kid a ward of the court does not deserve even one iota of my empathy,” Mark said as he forked another bite of cake. “He was just a kid, and what he was subjected to was simply not right. I mean; what happened to unconditional love.”

Wanda lowered her head. “In our father’s vocabulary, that doesn’t exist.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Nothing, I was just thinking aloud,” she said as she disappeared behind her coffee cup.

Mark took a deep breath. “I guess I shouldn’t talk like that, but it’s just that for a kid to be rejected by the rest of their family is not easy.”

“No, it’s not,” she said softly as she took a deep breath before looking away so that he would not see that her eyes were stinging with unshed tears.

After several moments of silence had passed between them, Mark noticed that Wanda looked unusually pale. Instead of continuing to discuss the unjust manner Willy had been treated by his father, his words emerged in the form of an inquiry. “Wanda, are you sure you’re alright?”

She ran her hand through her curly hair but kept her head lowered. “Maybe our meeting was a mistake,” she mumbled more to herself than to him.

“Why would you say that?” Mark said.

“I just think that maybe coming here was a mistake,” she whispered.

Instead of immediately responding, Mark reached out and grasped her hand. Once he held it, he shook his head. “Just tell me what’s wrong. I mean; I have this really strange feeling that it came about because of my mentioning Willy Wonka just now. I know we don’t know each other very well, but I really want to help if I can.”

“That’s the trouble, Mark I really don’t think you can. Things are not always easy, nor are they cut and dried. Even if I were to tell you everything, then I’m not really certain you would understand or believe me,” she said.

“Why would I not understand?” Mark asked as his eyes began to take on a mischievous twinkle. “You’re not going to tell me that you are one of Wonka’s jilted girlfriends, are you?”

“Me?” Wanda asked, but adamantly shook her head. “No, a romance with Willy Wonka would be the very last thing on my mind.”

“That’s a relief,” he said. “I don’t think I could have handled such stiff competition. Besides, I know the girl he’s presently dating, and I love her like a sister and would hate to see her get hurt if that were the case.”

Wanda took a deep breath. “I suppose I should explain,” she mused. “I just don’t know why I feel compelled to talk about this at all, but I think I can trust you with the truth.”

“Of course you can,” he affirmed.

In response to this, she clasped her hands together and looked across the table at him. “My surname is not Smith, it is Wonka. Willy Wonka is not my love interest, he’s my brother and I haven’t seen him in a very long time.”

“You’re Willy’s sister?” Mark asked. “No kidding?”

She nodded slowly, “no kidding.”

After several seconds had passed, understanding washed over him and he nodded his head. “I suppose it stands to reason, after all, you do have the same curly hair as he has and you’re about as tall as he is, too. So, tell me how it is that Willy has come to believe that he has been orphaned by the rest of his family.”

“Our mother died when he was just a baby and Willy never really knew her. We grew up on the outskirts of the city in a large flat. Our father was a dentist by trade and he was very strict. His office was on the first floor, so whenever we came home, there were always patients there waiting for his attention. Anyway, from the beginning, our father had this idea in his head that my brother would grow up and follow in his footsteps.”

“He’d become a dentist?” Mark asked. “That doesn’t seem even possible given what I know about Willy.”

“I know, but that’s what our father wanted,” Wanda said sadly. “As children, we were both free spirits and we wanted to do the things that depicted that. Willy wanted to do something with sweets and I wanted to study English Literature or be a writer. It was not very glamorous, but it was my dream to mold young minds or write grand stories.” As she spoke, her expression took on a faraway look. “After I turned eighteen, I realized that I had to make some hard choices. I couldn’t handle being under our father’s thumb any longer, and although this was easy for me, Willy could not have left because he was only twelve. On the day I decided to leave, our father fed me an ultimatum, either I get married or start attending a pre-dental program he had selected. Neither of these options held any appeal, so I made the decision to leave home. If I had stayed, then my father would have controlled absolutely everything I did, who my friends were, and even what music I listened to. So, I moved to Liverpool to live with a couple of my old school friends. Saying good-bye to Willy was the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life.”

“So, his fame sort of makes it hard for you to come back, doesn’t it?” Mark asked. “You miss him, but you’re fearful that if you show up in his life now, then questions will arise.”

“Yes,” she whispered with a nod of her head. “I think about him every day and wonder how he is doing or if he even remembers me. I feel as though a part of me is always with him, but there are still moments when I’m resentful that I can’t just go up to him and tell him that I had tried so hard to be there for him as he was growing up. I used to write him letters and tell him about everything that was happening in my life. I would wait for him to respond, but he never did.”

“Why?” he asked.

“He didn’t know,” she whispered, her voice laced in heartbreak. “Later I found out that the letters I had posted to him had been sent back unopened. I had to stop writing because it was all for nothing.”

“So your father sent them back?”

She nodded. “I think he did at first, but then after a year, there was a letter that came back with official stamps saying that the address was invalid. I just can’t imagine Willy ever having done that. As children, we had been very close.”

“Wanda, I think you should try and contact him. I mean; Willy does have a right to know that you sent letters to him. I mean; it would probably mean the world to him to know that you cared about his well being.”

Wanda bit down on her lower lip. “Maybe, but right now I just can’t. What would happen if I were to show up and tell him that I’m back in his life? He’d most assuredly get the wrong idea and think that I’m trying to get financial support from him.” She sighed, the hopelessness encased in her words. “I know I’m not made of money, but that’s not what I want. I simply want him to know that I never stopped caring about him. That’s why it hurts whenever I see stuff like this on tables. It always reminds me of what happened.”

“Perhaps, but I still think you should still try. I know from experience that this is not easy and if you simply decide to be stubborn about it, then there will no way for either of you to reconcile this. Wanda, you need your brother.”

Wanda took a deep breath. “I know, but does he need me? I abandoned him, Mark, and even though I knew that leaving was the only option I had, I cannot help but ask myself what sort of choices he had. It would have been impossible for him to do what I did. He was just a kid. I was an adult, and what did I do? I walked out on him.” She paused. “The truth is, Willy’s the reason I came back to London, but now I’m wondering if it was the right thing for me to have done.”

“Well, if that’s true, then maybe you should try,” he said and took a deep breath. “You can’t spend the rest of your life running away and making excuses for being out of his life for this long. I may not know your brother very well, but I do know that no one deserves to be strung along like this.” As he spoke, his gaze locked with hers. “My question to you is why you would want to keep something like this a secret.”

“It should be obvious to you,” she began. “I’ve already been set up by people after they had found out. I have had the press ask for interviews about Willy, which I could not even begin to respond to because it evokes too many painful memories. I have been asked so many questions about Willy and I cannot answer them.”

“I guess him being a prominent person does have consequences affixed, doesn’t it?”

Wanda nodded. “Don’t get me wrong, I dearly love my brother, but his fame makes reconciling things very difficult. I wanted to contact him so many times, but I chickened out. Why? Because I asked myself what would happen once I did.” She lowered her head and stared down at her lap.

“Well, you could start with ‘hello’,” Mark said.

“Then what?” she asked, “I’m not sure I could explain why I left home when I did. Besides, it was over twenty years ago and since then things have changed for both of us. I had no idea that our father had abandoned him. If I’d have known, I’d never have left him, or at the very least, I’d have come back to find him before now. Today, I would not be surprised if Willy had forgotten all about me.”

“Do you honestly believe that he would have?” Mark asked. “You’re his sister, and regardless of what happened in the past, I can’t believe that he would. I’d bet you money that if the two of you were to see each other, then everything would work out just fine.”

“What makes you so sure?” she asked.

Mark looked at her, his expression laced in earnestness. “I just am. I’ve been around situations like this since as long as I can remember. If Willy knew that you were here, then he’d probably be here with bells on.”

“Maybe, but I still have to ask you to please not get involved in this,” she whispered. “I know you mean well, but this is between me and Willy and I just don’t want anyone else to get involved with my problems.”

Before Mark could respond, he watched as she got to her feet and walked out of the café leaving him alone. He was still seated at the table when the chime over the door sounded.

It wasn’t until that precise moment when the realization washed over Mark’s face. He still did not have Wanda’s address or telephone number and he was not sure if she even intended on calling him again.

As he reached for the half empty cup of coffee, his gaze came to rest on the yellowish colored envelope that had slipped out of her pocket. Without thinking of what he was doing or why he was doing it; he leaned over and retrieved the object from off the floor.

Staring down at it, he read the cover as a small smile stretched its way across his face. Maybe he would not see her again, but this envelope with Willy’s name scrawled across it was perhaps all the proof he would need.

Mark Reynolds nodded his head. As a lawyer he needed a good memory, which he had. When Wanda had called him earlier, she had said that she lived on Cherry Street. That, if anything, would enable him to find her again. Of course, he could not help but wonder if after that casual meeting if he would receive another chance with her at all.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: Conspiracy Theories**

Stepping back outside, Mark walked along the street, his head lowered and his hands running along the front of his clothing.

The woman he was starting to show some semblance of romantic interest in was Willy Wonka’s sister. Somehow this knowledge made sense to him as she had carried herself in the same sort of manner as her reclusive brother had during their brief first meeting. Although Mark did not know either of them very well, his instincts were telling him that Willy and Wanda needed each other.

The problem was, while Wanda had asked him not to get involved, Mark somehow believed he already was.

Taking a deep breath, he continued to walk away from Piccadilly Circus in the direction of Hyde Park. As he made his way along the esplanade, he tried without much success at contemplating his options. His mind seemed to be haunted by the question of whether or not Willy Wonka would appreciate an outsider meddling in his private affairs.

Slowing his pace, he casually made his way along the river that ran adjacent to the park. The lawyer hoped that instead of getting teased about his news, that the family would understand Wanda’s plight. Perhaps Maggie would actually know how he should proceed, if at all.

He took a deep breath and released it slowly, his breathing in cadence with his steps as his feet squished through the snow. After several steps, he stopped and stared at the trees that were blowing swiftly nearby. Beyond the wooded park, the Wonka factory rose in the distance.

Contrary to all the things that had happened that day, Mark recalled the very first time he had crossed paths with Wanda. Everything was starting to fall into place, specifically the unhidden sadness that encased her when he had encountered her at the front gate of the factory on New Year’s Day. Mark had seen the envelope in her hand, but she had concealed it the moment he had spoken to her.

He recalled how she had carried herself when they had walked through the park together. Her head had been lowered, and her expression laced in sadness. Could it have been because of Willy, or was there another reason for her overwhelming despondency?

_They were siblings,_ he thought, _but of course they had to be. I would have been a fool to not recognize the resemblance. After all, they both had the same curly blond hair and eccentric clothing. Wanda really was more like her brother than anyone might have guessed._

Sighing, Mark reached the house and rested his hand on the gate. 

Outside in the front garden several boys were kicking around a football and he smiled as he fondly remembered the days when he would do the very same.

Passing his way through the gate, he approached the front door. As he was walking towards it, Bob was coming out, the boy dressed in what could only be described as the clothes one would wear to a school dance. His pants and shirt were finely pressed and in his hand, he carried a shimmering golden piece of paper.

“Hey, Uncle Mark, what brings you by?” He called out as he reached where the lawyer was now standing. “I thought you had gone home to prepare to sue someone.”

“Actually, that was my intention, but something has happened and I need to talk some things over with your mum,” Mark said. “Is she here?”

“No, she left with Willy and Melanie right after you took off this morning. They didn’t say what they were doing or where they were going, but I guess I could tell you that Willy looked sort of preoccupied and I didn’t think to ask him why he looked so troubled.”

“Troubled?” Mark asked. “What do you suppose would have brought that on?”

“I don’t know. He mentioned to me that he had a sister, and even Sarah told me about the name Willy had suggested for her to call her new doll,” Bob said.

“Did he say whether or not he wanted to see his sister?” Mark asked.

“Not really, he just said he had an older sister,” Bob said shrugging his shoulders.

Mark nodded. “I see. So where are you off to in such fancy dress?”

“Charlie Bucket called the house during lunch and asked me to come by the factory this afternoon to watch a movie with him. Dad thought I should dress nicely for a visit to the factory, but I reminded him that Charlie is just a kid like me and that fancy stuff would make him feel awkward. Anyway, if Dad had his way, I would have gone dressed like a penguin in a tuxedo.”

Mark smiled. “Uh-huh. Well, it’d fit with the weather we’ve been having lately.”

Nodding, Bob started to walk towards the gate but turned around, the golden paper he tucked carefully inside his coat pocket. “Uncle Mark, do you think that my mum and Melanie might have taken Willy to look for his sister?”

“I don’t really know,” Mark said honestly, “but you know something?”

“What?”

“They’re not going to have to look for very long, because I met her earlier today.”

“You did?” the teenager asked. As his uncle offered a confirming nod, he continued. “That’s great, I mean; when you see Willy again, then you can tell him.”

“I don’t know, Wanda seemed a bit afraid at the prospect of seeing him,” he began. “Something tells me that she needs to be eased into the idea that Willy is not your typical celebrity tycoon type of person. Even with this prominence that looms over him, I can see the rationale behind her fear, we need to find a way to get them together without her being aware of it.”

“I’m game, but that whole being scared thing is crazy,” Bob began. “Willy is the coolest person in the world and he does so much to help other people. I mean; look at what he did for my parents and the kids here.” He looked down at his pocket where the golden ticket now rested, but instead of speaking of that, his next question emerged. “Why would he not care for his own sister?”

“Because, Wanda lives in the real world like the rest of us do,” Mark said sadly. “Just try and remember how you reacted when you first found out who Willy was.”

“Mum told you?”

Mark nodded. “She mentioned it to me when I was helping her clean up after lunch the other day. She didn’t break a confidence, but she did say that you sort of freaked out.”

“That’s an understatement,” Bob mused. “I was so surprised to see him sitting in the kitchen eating cookies and chatting with Mum, Melanie, and Sarah. I know I was rude to him. After all that happened, I started asking myself why he would want to have anything to do with poor people like us.”

“I know, but because of his job, people make a big deal out of him. The good thing is how we’ve started to know him as a person and not a celebrity. Wanda only knows her brother through what she has seen of him in the media. She’s terrified at the prospect that Willy will think that she has just popped into his life while he’s riding on top of the world. There’s a lot of fear going on, and maybe what we need to do is get them into the same place without either of them realizing it.”

“Mum would have a fit if we did that, you know,” Bob said, but when Mark nodded, a broad grin spread its way across the boy’s face. “That’s sneaky…”

“…In other words, you like it,” Mark affirmed with a smirk.

“It’s brilliant,” Bob said appreciatively. “What about Mum and Melanie? If they find out we know all this stuff and didn’t tell them, then they’d string us alive.”

“Let me handle your mum, she doesn’t scare me,” he said coyly. “Besides, if I can find out Wanda’s address, then maybe I could get her to come with me to Hyde Park tomorrow afternoon. I think she liked me because she didn’t waste too much time before ringing me. Let’s just say if I can unearth her address, then maybe you can see if Willy will leave the factory for a time to take a walk with you. Tell him that it’s your mum’s birthday coming up and that you need some ideas for gifts.”

“Okay, but what about Wanda? Can you somehow arrange that they will cross paths?” Bob asked. “I won’t say anything to Willy about it, but I think that he’s smart enough to suspect when I’m plotting something.”

Mark nodded. “Yes, and for that reason, don’t utter a word about Wanda. I don’t want him to think that she will show up at some designated meeting place only to have his hopes dashed.”

The boy nodded. “I don’t want to let him down either. I think I did enough of that before Dad came back.”

“Well, we do know why,” Mark said as he glanced down at his watch. “I should get back home and you have a meeting with your friend. Come on, I’ll walk part of the way with you.”

They made their way down the street as Bob looked at his uncle. “I hope this works out,” he mused. “Willy’s been really nice to me, and I’d like to do something nice for him. I guess you probably know about the stupid stuff I did before Dad came home.”

“No, Maggie didn’t tell me much, but I can sort of understand why you were upset. It’s not easy living in an orphanage when you’re not an orphan and can’t really relate with the other kids,” Mark said gently. “If you recall, she and I grew up in the very same environment. Our parents ran the home before Maggie took over.”

The teenager dug in his pocket and carefully pulled out the golden ticket. “Uncle Mark, look at what Willy gave me for Christmas.” As he spoke, he handed the piece of paper to his uncle.

Mark accepted the offered piece of paper and stared down at the writing that covered it. “A tour?” he asked, but when his nephew nodded, he returned it to the teenager. “Wow, that’s impressive.”

“I know,” the boy said as he returned it to his pocket. “That’s why I think we’ve got to help them.”

“We will,” Mark said as they reached the front of the factory and they spotted Charlie standing next to the gate.

“Hey Charlie, how’s it going?” Bob asked as the other boy came over to him and offered a cordial smile. It seemed as though all the earlier antagonism he had displayed towards Willy Wonka’s protégé was now forgotten and the two boys had managed to find some common ground.

“It’s cold,” Charlie muttered, but when he looked at Bob, he could not help but ask the same question Mark had asked back at the house. “I don’t get it, why are you so dressed up? We were just going to watch movies and stuff.”

“Ask my dad, he thought I should dress up to come visit you,” Bob said as he rolled his eyes.

Charlie nodded, but looked at Mark as though anticipating some sort of introduction.

Seeing this, Bob waved an arm towards his uncle. “Charlie, this is Mark Reynolds, he’s my uncle.”

“Hello, Mr. Reynolds, it’s nice to meet you,” Charlie offered.

“The pleasure is mine, Mr. Bucket,” Mark said slyly.

“That’s his way of saying that he wants you to call him ‘Mark’,” Bob said smirking at Charlie’s confused expression.

“Oh, uh, okay,” Charlie said as he unlocked the gate. “Let’s get inside, my feet are half frozen. Would you like to join us, Mark?”

“No, unfortunately, I have to get home and as Bob would say, ‘prepare to sue someone’,” he smirked. “That’s the life of a bookish lawyer, I’m afraid. See you guys around. Oh and it was nice meeting you, Charlie.”

As soon as Willy’s protégé nodded, the two boys went inside and left Mark standing outside next to the mailbox.

Wordlessly, he raised the flap and dropped the letter from Wanda inside the box before backing slowly away from the factory gates.

He knew that he probably should not have done that, but it was Wanda who had left him back at the café and not the other way around. What else could he have done with it?

_Now, whatever was going to happen would simply be left to fate,_ he thought, _but at least Willy would know once and for all that his sister did care for him._

As the lawyer stepped away from the factory gate, his thoughts continued. _It would only be a matter of time before Willy would realize to what extent._


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: The Return**

After his visit with Laura and Jessie, Willy and his friends left the small deli. The two Jensen women had promised to notify Maggie if they heard anything, but Jessie seemed rather insistent that nothing would happen until the twelfth, when school was scheduled to reconvene.

Willy was feeling only somewhat optimistic about his search when he returned to the factory. He recalled how he had been rather happy singing ‘Inchworm’ with the little boy. He had not heard that song in years, not since he was a boy, and he was extremely fond of the song’s lyrics.

_Such simple times,_ he thought as he dug in his pocket in search of the gate key. As he was shuffling the objects around in his hand, something caught his eye. There was something stuck inside the mailbox the corner of what looked to be an envelope was now peering out at him.

Quickly, he went into the courtyard and closed the gate behind him. Within seconds, he had managed to open the mailbox and retrieve its contents.

As soon as he held it in his hands, he silently closed the mailbox and started to make his way through the courtyard towards the door that would lead into the same hallway he had led the Golden Ticket winners through several months back.

It was no secret that he would have preferred to have Melanie come back with him. Instead, she had returned to the children’s home with Maggie to help clean up after the New Year’s festivities. The front garden still needed to be fixed up, and the house would need some cleaning. Soon after promising Willy that she would return to the factory first thing Monday morning, Melanie and Maggie left him on his own.

For Willy, this would not be easy as it would be his first night without Melanie around since the two of them had started dating. Now, for whatever reason, he dreaded having to spend the evening by himself. Perhaps it was because he had a great deal on his mind. Somehow, the young woman had the uncanny ability to distract him from the troubles that often got stuck in his head.  
He glanced down at the envelope that was now in his hand. His eyes widened slightly when he recognized the familiar penmanship that graced the front of it.

_So close and yet so far away,_ he thought as he carefully opened the envelope and a faded piece of newspaper fell out and drifted to the ground. Leaning over, he picked up the slip of paper and stared with unhidden surprise at the small checkered markings that covered it. _A crossword puzzle,_ he thought as he was drawn back to his childhood and how fond of word puzzles he had once been.

“Wanda,” he whispered her name as he ran his hand over the faded clipping. Only she would know of this. He continued to inspect the clipping until he discovered the letter inside. With trembling hands, he extracted the second piece of paper and stared down at the folded yellow object. Unfolding it, he noticed that the letter was dated back when he had been twelve-years-old. It appeared as though it had been written soon after his sister had left for Liverpool.

His thoughts were jumbled as he made his way through the confines of the factory in the direction of his office. Reaching the door, he noticed that one of his workers was standing in the doorway and waiting for him. “Mister Wonka?” the worker spoke, his voice barely audible.

“Yes, Hugo-Maye,” Willy spoke, his voice trying desperately to be business as usual, but failing miserably.

“There is something that I think you ought to see,” the Oompa Loompa said matter-of-factly as he started to direct Willy down the hall in the direction of the Wonkavision room.

Not really certain as to what that something was, Willy silently followed him towards the room. This time, since they were not shrinking anything, the safety clothing was ignored. Willy did, out of force of habit, grabbed the first pair of goggles that he saw.

As they entered the room, he went over to the large black colored screen and sat down on the chair in front of it. Without another word, the Oompa Loompa followed him before pressing several of the buttons just to the left of it. Seconds faded into minutes as Willy watched as the surveillance video of the front gate on New Year’s Day played out. He watched as a curly headed woman approached, stood at the gate for several moments before abruptly walking away.

“Wanda?” Willy’s single word question emerged and he looked at the loyal worker through surprised blue eyes. “That explains the letter, but why would she leave one that is over two decades old?” he asked after several seconds had passed.

“I cannot answer you, but we were initially surprised because for several seconds we thought that this person might have been you. Charlie watched the tape and confirmed that the individual in this video was someone else. He said that at the time of it being made, that you were away from the factory.”

Willy nodded as he pointed at the image that drifted across the screen. It was then when he spotted a small flash of gold around the person’s right ear. “Yes, well, that could be the rationale, but the other thing is I have never worn gold earrings.”

The Oompa Loompa momentarily stopped the video and stared at the spot where Willy was pointing. Seconds later, he nodded as his orange face took on the shade that resembled the inside of a grapefruit. The chocolatier knew that his worker was embarrassed for having overtly missed that particular distinction.

Instead of getting upset, he rested a hand on the worker’s shoulder, and smiled. “It was pretty easy to overlook.”

Hugo-Maye nodded. “Could it be that this woman might have been family?”

“She is family,” Willy said softly, “she’s my sister.” He took a deep breath and allowed the air to blow between his lips as he stood up and started to make his way away from the projection screen and back over towards the door. Before leaving the room, he stopped and turned around. “If she returns to the gate, notify me at once.”

“I will,” Hugo-Maye said with a confirming nod of his head as Willy stepped back out into the corridor.

_So close and yet so far,_ his thoughts were still racing as he reached the door to his office.

~~~~~

At the same instance, Melanie and Maggie had returned to the house. Walking into the small front yard, it was plain to see that both women seemed to have more on their minds than simply getting busy with the New Year’s clean-up.

“I think Willy was rather sad that we could not go and look for Wanda as soon as we had spoken with Jessie and Laura,” Melanie said softly.

“He simply needs to learn patience,” Maggie responded.

“I think he’s been patient enough,” Melanie said as they entered the house. “After all, he’s been without his sister for more than two decades. That would be hard for anyone to contend with.” As she spoke, the door closed behind them. They made their way down the hall and entered the kitchen.

As the two women began to work, Maggie took a deep breath as she responded to her foster daughter’s words. “You’re right, he has been patient enough. I am just running out of ideas as to what to do next. I’ve always been accustomed to having more help than a song and a curly headed teacher.”

“In other words, you’re discouraged,” Melanie said.

Maggie nodded. “I hate having to wait ten days to find out if this will work out, but what else can we do?”

Seconds later, the phone in the front hallway rang and she turned towards the doorway with the intention of going to answer the call. “I’ll be right back.”

Melanie nodded as Maggie left the room and stepped out into the hallway.

Approaching the phone, she picked it up. “Kinsley Street Children’s Home, this is Maggie,” she spoke into the receiver, her formal voice filling the room.

“It’s Mark.” A masculine voice filled her ear.

“I thought you were going home to prepare a case.”

“I was, but there’s something I need to talk to you about and I told Bob that we should keep it secret, but now I sort of feel badly keeping this information from you,” Mark said.

“Okay, what’s keeping you up at night?”

“It’s about Willy Wonka,” he began.

Maggie took a deep breath. It was clear that her brother was trying for the dramatic emphasis and as she released the breath, she waited for him to continue speaking. When nothing emerged after several seconds, she spoke. “What about him, Mark?”

“Bob told me that he said something about having a sister,” Mark began.

“Yes, we just got back from following a lead on finding her,” Maggie offered freely. “Why?”

“You won’t be looking very long,” Mark said. “I met her.”

“You met her?” Maggie asked with disbelief. After a second she spoke, her voice indicative that she was intent on scolding her younger brother. “Look, Mark, this isn’t funny.”

“I’m not joking, Maggie, I wouldn’t joke about something like this,” Mark said.

“Where did you meet her?”

“The first time it was on New Year’s Day and I was on my way to visit you and the kids. It was mere coincidence that it actually happened. You know that when I walk to the house I always bypass the factory and she was standing outside the gates staring at it. I don’t know why, but I found myself compelled to go up to her and ask if she was okay. Anyway, we started talking and I told her that I would see her through the park.” he said.

“That was the woman you had been walking with?” Maggie asked. “Why didn’t you say something about it last night?”

“Because I didn’t know,” Mark said. “Look, I even schemed with Bob about getting Willy to meet us at the park. I thought it would be a perfect plot, but then after I got home and checked the phone book, I couldn’t find her number. She’s not listed as Wanda Wonka or Wanda Smith…”

“…Her name is Wanda Smith?” Maggie interrupted.

“That’s the name she gave me,” he said. “I had given her my card and hoped that she would call and she did this afternoon. She wanted to get together so I went down to Piccadilly to meet her. When I got to the deli, she was waiting and after we went inside, we started talking and then the subject of Willy Wonka came up. She got really upset and after some persuasion on my part, she broke down and told me that she’s his older sister.”

“How did you respond?”

“How could I respond? I mean; Maggie, I was shocked,” Mark said. “I tried to persuade her to contact him, you know, to call him or something. I told her that he was really nice, but she refused outright. I think she’s rather scared that he will reject her. She said that they haven’t seen one another in over twenty years.”

“Willy would never reject her, that’s just not his way,” Maggie said.

“Well, you know that and I know that, but Wanda doesn’t; she thinks that trying to get in touch with him means that she wants something from him,” Mark said. “I’ve seen it in just about every case I’ve been involved in. Wanda is afraid to even hope that something good could come out of all of this.”

“He just wants to find her so that he would have some semblance of a family.”

“I sort of got that impression of him, but Wanda said that basically we live in the real world, so this is a valid concern that she had about it,” Mark argued. “The problem is, when I pushed the issue even further, Wanda got up and left the bakery. I still don’t have her address or number and can’t get in touch with her unless she calls me.”

“You do know which way she walked when you both parted company yesterday, right?” she asked.

“Yes,” Mark said. “It was on the perimeter of the park about two blocks over from where you live. I went straight ahead and she turned left.”

“Did she say anything else?” Maggie wanted to know.

“Yeah, she let it slip that she had a flat on Cherry Street, but didn’t mention the number,” he said.

“That doesn’t help us very much, as Cherry Street has several large blocks of flats along it. It might take several days for us to find which number she lives at,” Maggie said. “Maybe we can check the individual houses and see if there are some familiar names on the mailboxes.”

“That may be a good idea, but bear in mind that she also said something about going on holiday, and chances are she might not even be at home.”

“Then I suppose the only thing we can do is pray for bad weather so that she’ll be stranded here. Maybe Melanie and I can start checking things tomorrow,” Maggie said.

“Well, I wish I could help, but I’m due at the office first thing in the morning,” Mark said.

“Well, we do have a week before we’ll be able to start looking into another lead that we got this afternoon,” Maggie said as Melanie came back into the room and went over to the sink to start washing the lunch dishes.

“What sort of lead?”

“It’s a long shot, but we met some people today who told us that a teacher at one of the local schools might be Willy’s sister. So, we’ve been trying to figure out how much progress we can make before school reconvenes in a week.”

“Good luck with that,” Mark said. “If I hear from her again, I’ll call you.”

“That’s all you can do,” Maggie said. “Thanks so much for letting me know.”

“No problem sis,” he said and hung up.

Once Maggie had finished speaking to her brother, Melanie looked at her. “What do we need to work on?” she asked.

“Mark met Willy’s sister, Melanie,” Maggie said.

“He did?”

“Yes, he met her while on his way over here yesterday. The problem is, she didn’t give him her address or phone number. He only said that she lives on Cherry Street and that’s not far from here.”

“No, but Cherry Street covers four street blocks,” Melanie objected.

“Well, we have a little over a week until school starts up and then we can check the lead we got from Jess and Laura. That is at least something to keep us busy while we’re sitting on our heels,” Maggie said. “If we go to Cherry Street tomorrow and start looking around for her, then it might be better than taking a bus to Liverpool and seeing if the Jensen family there would actually be willing to speak with us about Wanda Wonka or whatever name she happens to be using. If they have nothing to do with their nieces, then I would be willing to bet that they will not want anything to do with us either.”

Melanie took a deep breath. “Should we tell Willy about this?”

“Only if he asks,” Maggie said softly. “I know that that seems cruel, but Willy had a hard time dealing with us going to see Laura. There’s going to be a lot more of that in this. We’re probably going to met and talk to a lot of people on this particular journey.”

“I’m guessing as much. I just hope…” her voice trailed off.

“…You hope that Willy will not be angry with what we are doing,” Maggie said.

Melanie nodded as the phone rang in the hallway. “Yeah, but it’s not just that.”

“Let me go answer that and we’ll continue after I find out who is calling,” Maggie said.

Melanie nodded as the house mother left the kitchen and went to take the call.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14: Finding One’s Path**

Out in the hallway, Maggie picked up the phone. “Kinsley Street Children’s Home, this is Maggie Richardson speaking.”

“Maggie, it’s Willy,” the broken sounding voice emerged at the other end of the line. “Something’s happened.”

“What is it, do you want to come over?” she asked.

“No, can you and Melanie please come to the factory?” he asked. “It’s kind of important and Melanie says that at the house the ‘walls have ears’.”

“Yes, she’s quite right,” Maggie asked. “When should we come?”

“As soon as you can,” Willy said. “Melanie has a key, so there should be no problems with you getting inside.”

“Alright, then just hang in there,” Maggie said, “we’ll leave straightaway, just look for us to be there in about twenty minutes.”

“Okay, thank you,” he whispered and hung up.

After the phone call ended, Maggie returned to the kitchen. As she came into the room, she could see that Melanie was standing in front of the sink, her back facing the door. “Melanie,” Maggie spoke her name and she turned around. “That was Willy and he didn’t sound good at all. He asked if we could come to the factory and meet him. I told him that we would be there in about twenty minutes.”

Melanie nodded as she took a deep breath and haphazardly wiped her hand over her face. This action was a futile attempt at concealing the tears that were now streaming down her cheeks.

Maggie extended one of her hands to the younger woman and when she felt Melanie’s hand encircling her own, she smiled encouragingly. “Come on, sweetheart, we need to get going.”

Melanie nodded and silently went to retrieve her coat. Once she had put it on and buttoned it closed, she followed Maggie to the front door. After they stepped outside, Maggie turned around and closed the door before speaking.

“Willy said he gave you a key, do you have it with you?”

“I always keep it with me,” Melanie whispered softly. “I wasn’t sure why I do when I’m staying at the house, but maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea after all.”

Maggie took a deep breath. “I noticed that you were upset back at the house, are you alright now or do you want to talk about what’s going on?”

“I don’t know if I can, I guess I’m starting to think that everyone else is doing a better job of finding Wanda than I am,” she said sadly. “I know it sounds selfish of me to say that…”

“…Yes it does,” Maggie said bluntly. When she saw the hurt look cross her foster daughter’s face, her expression softened. “I didn’t say that with the intention of hurting you, but at this point we take the leads where we can get them.”

“I know,” Melanie whispered.

“Try to keep in mind, you asked me to help you search for Wanda and that’s what I’m trying to do, but I can’t ignore the tips that Mark gives me or whatever else we happen to find out just to spare your feelings. I know that you don’t feel as though you are good enough for someone like Willy, but you are. You also don’t have any reason to prove your worth to him, he loves and cares for you as you are and that’s not going to change. What you should be doing is supporting the notion that we can help him find his sister and allow them to heal that, which was broken twenty years ago.”

“He’s so lucky that he has a sister,” she whispered. “I was an only child, at least that’s what I think. I mean; if my parents did have any other kids after they ditched me, I wouldn’t know.”

“Do you regret that you never went out and searched for them?” Maggie asked.

“No, not really,” she whispered as she shook her head. “It would just be nice to have a sister to talk to or confide in, but I don’t really want to look for my parents just to see if something like that is possible. I mean; what’s the point to doing that? They would probably reject me just like they did back then.”

“Maybe it would give you the chance to ask why,” Maggie said. “Sometimes it helps to find closure, even if it’s painful.”

“Yes, but sometimes it opens up even more wounds,” Melanie said. “That’s why I can’t do it; it would be too painful to even try.”

“Well, it’s always going to be your choice,” Maggie said softly.

“Do you know what really brings it back? It was that moment when I saw Laura and Jess at the deli and how they were behaving towards one another. There was a sense of warmth that was unfamiliar to me and I started to ask myself what it would be like to share that sense of closeness with another woman. I mean; I know I can talk to you, but I sometimes wish that there was someone my age that I could relate to. None of the girls I grew up around were interested in hanging out with me. They were interested in fashion magazines and I was into things that boys liked.”

“You can’t change what you once were, you can only change who you are now,” Maggie said wisely.

“I know that,” Melanie whispered. “It’s just that ever since Willy came into my life, I realized what it felt like to be loved and accepted. Then yesterday, Mark came in and in a strange way, he sort of reminded me of how homely I used to be. He was talking about the football and the things that I did. I couldn’t understand why I didn’t like dates back then. Why were the boys more fun to hang out with? I wasn’t interested in going to movies and snuggling up with a bloke; I just wanted to meet him face to face on a football pitch.”

“Not every girl was into dates and stuff,” Maggie said. “You got along with boys because you shared interests with them and that was your way of finding your place and making friends. When I was a girl, I was exactly the same.”

“You were?”

“Yes, I was interested in airplanes.” Maggie said smiling. “I knew all the makes of them and could tell you where they came from based solely on the first letter of their serial number. It was a very boyish hobby, but that was how I was. Every time a plane flew overhead, I had my head in the clouds. I even told my mother that I wanted to be a pilot when I grew up.”

“What did she say?”

“She didn’t say anything, she just indicated that by the time I grew up, my hobbies and interests would probably change and the things that I thought were important as a young girl would no longer matter. You are not the same person that you were when you were fifteen. Times have changed and as I traded my airplane books in for mystery novels and cookbooks; you traded your Manchester United jersey in for a Victorian style dress. There’s nothing odd about that, Melanie, it just shows the manner in which you’ve changed over time. The only advice I can give you is to live your life in this present moment, not in the past.”

“You really were into airplanes?” Melanie asked. “I mean; this is really no joke.”

“Yes, I was and no I’m not joking. Sometimes, I relive that time when I help the boys put together model airplanes or we listen to the communications on Raymond’s CB radio and the kids ask me questions about it. Willy gave Travis a model kit for Christmas and two nights ago, we sat in the parlor and I helped him put it together. This gave me a chance to get to know him a little bit better and got him to open up about how he felt about his dropping grades in English. By the end of the evening, he was laughing and talking to me like I was his older sister.”

“That’s really great,” Melanie said. “Bob told me the other day that he was a bit worried about Travis because he had gotten into a fist fight with Jon about some essay that he had to write for school.”

“Yes, that was one of the things he told me about,” Maggie said. “But, the moral of the story is, you may find that one day the things that you loved as a child will reemerge in your life and suddenly you will be grateful for it because it helped you to find common ground with someone else; like I did with Travis.”

Melanie nodded as they reached the factory’s front gate. “Willy actually told me that I shouldn’t worry about that. Maybe he’s right, but still, I sometimes do.”

“In this instance, I think Willy is right,” Maggie said as she looked at the smokestacks and smiled slightly. “You know, this is the first time I’ve actually been here. It feels a little bit strange.”

Melanie nodded as she stuck the key in the lock and turned it. As it clicked open, the two women slipped inside. Melanie closed the gate, locked it, and the two women walked towards the door that would lead inside. Using the same key, Melanie opened the door and they stepped into a darkened hallway.

“It’s good that you know your way around,” Maggie said. “I’m not sure how I would feel if I had to walk this corridor alone.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, let’s just say that I’ve always had an aversion to haunted houses,” Maggie said.

“It’s not haunted,” Melanie said as they wound their way through a loopy style corridor and stepped into the contract room. Once they did, the younger woman began to unbutton her coat. Once she had taken it off, she went over to the coat rack and hung her coat up. “We can hang our coats in here, just be careful, the racks do grab the coats.”

“They grab the coats?”

“You’ll see what I mean when you try to hang it up,” Melanie said.

Maggie nodded and took off her coat and as she tried, the hand grabbed the coat and she jumped back, a shocked cry emerging from between her lips. “It may not be haunted, but it certainly feels like it is,” she said as her hand rested against her pounding heart.

As she spoke, Willy appeared in the doorway. “Hello, Maggie, welcome to the factory,” he greeted her somewhat formally as he extended one of his hands to her. When he felt her hands grasping his, he released them as he bit down on his lower lip and turned back towards the door.

“Thank you,” Maggie said as she rested her free hand on the chocolatier’s shoulder. “Do you want to take us somewhere so that we can sit down and talk?”

Willy nodded, “yes, of course.” He turned and reached for Melanie’s hand and once she had joined him, they exited the ‘contract room’ and walked down several more winding corridors. Instead of taking them to his office, Willy opted to taking them to one of the guest suites.

As they reached one of them he stopped and opened the door. With one of his hands, he waved the two women to enter the room. Once they had entered Willy followed them in and closed the door behind them.

Instead of initially taking in the decorations of the room, Maggie went over to the sofa and sat down. Melanie looked around the room for several moments before joining her foster mother. For his part, Willy retrieved a small candy dish from off a shelf next to the door and brought it over to the coffee table. As he placed the object in front of them, he regarded them through somewhat nervous eyes. “Shall I make us some tea?” he offered.

“No,” Maggie said, but patted the sofa with one hand, an indication that she wanted him to sit down between her and Melanie. “Come and sit with us, I think we need to talk,” she began. “You had us worried, Willy. You sounded so upset on the phone and I think that what you have to say should take precedence to tea at the moment. Don’t you?”

Melanie watched as Willy sat down on the sofa, but instead of initiating any contact with him, she waited for him to begin his explanation.

When he finally did, his voice was cracking with emotion. “When I got back to the factory after we had gone to meet Laura and Jess, I found this in the mailbox.” He pulled out a letter, newspaper clipping, and a faded envelope.

Maggie extended her hand to him as he handed them over. As she was reading the letter, Willy spoke. “After I came inside, one of my workers came to my office and told me that on the recorded piece of surveillance tape, they had seen a woman approaching the gate. It looked like Wanda, but I’m not sure if it was her or if she had left this letter in the mailbox. There was no footage of her actually putting anything in the mailbox.” He swallowed slowly as he wrung his hands together. “I don’t know what to make of this.”

“Well, I view it is rather encouraging news,” Maggie said as she finished reading the letter and extended both it and the clipping to Melanie. The envelope she kept.

The three of them became silent as Melanie read through the letter. After she lowered it onto her lap, she looked at Maggie. “How do you figure this to be encouraging?” she asked.

“That’s easy, this envelope doesn’t have the address for the factory,” Maggie said as she extended the envelope to him. “Look at it closely and tell me where this address comes from.”

“I don’t follow.”

“Okay, better said, where was this letter supposed to go?”

“It’s addressed to where my father and I used to live, that is, until right after I turned thirteen and ended up being sent away,” he said.

“Can you read the postmark on it?”

“Not very well, it looks pretty faded.”

“It says Liverpool,” Maggie said. “I recognized it because my grandfather used to collect stamps and that postmark was on several that he had ripped from some old letters. It hasn’t really changed all that much since then. Anyway, your sister obviously made it to Liverpool and she wrote you that letter to let you know that she was getting settled there and that everything was alright.”

“So what does that mean?” Melanie asked.

“I think it means that back in the day Wanda cared for you a great deal, so much so that she wrote this letter and eventually mailed it. You may never have received it, but now you can let go of the notion that she never actually sat down and wrote you, because this is the proof that she did. Look at the handwriting on the letter.” She waited for Melanie to give him the letter so that he could study it closer. “Does the handwriting look familiar?”

“Yes,” Willy said, “it is Wanda’s. I would recognize it anywhere.”

“Now, I want you to study the envelope a little closer, do you think that the letter might have been sent back?”

“I wouldn’t have done that,” Willy whispered.

“No, of course you wouldn’t, but someone else clearly did, otherwise she would never have gotten it back,” Maggie said wisely. “I think your sister still cares for you, otherwise she would not have brought that letter to the factory and it would not have found its way into your mailbox. You needed to see it, Willy; if for no other reason except to let you know that she still loves you, and that you matter to her.”

“I have to find her, but where can I look?” he asked softly. “I can’t just sit here and wait for school to reconvene so we can follow the lead we were given today.”

“Well, this may come as a surprise to you, but my brother did meet your sister a couple of days ago, he said that she was going by the surname ‘Smith’, which means that Tommy’s kindergarten teacher might actually be your sister and that at the latest, the eleventh will be the day that you are reunited,” Maggie said. “He called me this afternoon before you did and he was very worried.”

“Mark was worried?” Melanie asked.

“Yes, he was.”

“If he’s worried, then this is really serious,” Melanie said. “Willy, you met Mark for New Years, and you know how he comes across as a bit of a jokester, but if he is serious about something, then we all know that it is because of something very important.”

Maggie nodded. “Mark knows when to be serious, he has to; if he didn’t then he would probably not make for a very good lawyer.”

“So all of this means that Wanda’s probably back in London somewhere?” Willy asked weakly.

“Yes, I think it’s safe to assume that she’s living here now and that means we don’t have to book a trip to Liverpool or pay the Jansen family any unforeseen visits. At any rate, since I think it’s safe to assume that since Wanda is here in town; that means that she was at your front door when you were ringing in the New Year with us.”

“Then she did became a school teacher just like she wanted,” Willy said softly. “I remember how she wanted to inspire young people to reach beyond all their limitations and become something really special.”

Melanie reached over and rested her hand on his shoulder. When she felt it trembling beneath her touch, she wrapped her arm securely around his shoulder and held tightly to him. “We’re going to find her, Willy.”

The chocolatier nodded dully. “So it would seem.” He licked his lips and looked at Maggie. “I don’t know what to say. Maybe this time I did overreact. I’m just wary about everything that is going on. Wanda’s my sister, and it just seems so hard to believe.”

“I understand, Willy, and you have to know that what you are feeling is completely normal. Many kids feel the same way when they have to look for their birth parents,” Maggie said. “You’re frightened by what could happen the further along you go in pursuing this. I’ve seen it in many cases; some are nervous and anxious, while others are angry and hurt.”

“I’m not angry, maybe a little hurt, but mostly afraid,” Willy said. “It’s probably not the greatest masculine tradition to admit it, but I am.”

“Wanda might be afraid too, you know,” Melanie whispered as she tried to keep her tears at bay. “I mean; she probably didn’t know what would happen if she dropped that letter in the mailbox. I guess you’re braver than me because if I had to look for my parents, I would be positively mortified. It’s really weird, but when I was away at school, people would ask me almost everyday if I would ever want to search for my family, and I told them ‘no, I wouldn’t’. Then they asked me why and when I told them that I wasn’t interested in seeing the people who rejected me. They turned around and told me that I was being selfish.”

“That doesn’t really help,” Willy said softly, “it only makes me more wary of trying to find her.”

Melanie took a deep breath but instead of responding to his words, she merely lowered her head and nodded. As an awkward silence descended on the room, the young woman could feel the sadness literally engulfing her until she eventually got up and quietly left the room.

Once she was gone, Willy looked at Maggie. “I’m sorry, maybe I shouldn’t have said that to her. I know that she’s very sensitive about things and that particular topic is not an easy one for her to contend with.”

“You were right, though; what she was saying didn’t help,” Maggie said honestly. “Melanie is frightened and I can’t say I blame her. But, her situation is not your situation, Willy. What she experienced with her parents is vastly different than the relationship that you had with your sister.”

“I know, but I can’t shake the feeling that something’s going on with her, and I’m not sure I can handle Melanie’s crisis of faith and searching for Wanda,” Willy said. “There are moments when it feels as though Melanie wants me to give up, even though she promised me that she would help.”

“She wants to help, but the more she does, the more afraid she becomes and that fear is perhaps just as intense as yours,” Maggie said. “What Melanie is feeling is insecure about the prospect of searching for her own family. There’s a part of her that hopes to find a place where she belongs as well as the sense of rejection that she is most afraid of. It’s coming full circle and it constantly reminds her of something that is more difficult than anyone can imagine. She is seeing more of herself in this than she should.”

“What can we do to help her?” he asked.

“Just be there for her and when she’s ready, she’ll talk to us,” Maggie said as they got up off the sofa and started walking towards the door.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15: Melanie’s Pain**

Outside in the corridor, Melanie was trying with everything inside of her not to cry. As she sat down on the linoleum floor, she allowed her body to slouch over until her face was resting in her knees. In this position, she wrapped her arms around her legs and allowed the tears to fall freely from her eyes.

She knew deep down inside that Willy had been right; her comment had not helped matters at all. She concluded that what she had said could have the opposite consequence to what she truly intended. As her thoughts drifted, she pondered why it was that this search was having such a profound impact on her.

_I can usually handle just about any situation,_ she thought, _but now I feel as though I’m losing myself in all of this. How can I be strong for Willy when I feel as though I am emotionally falling apart?_

Although she did feel somewhat inclined to run away from these issues, she knew that she could not. Instead of hiding, she merely stared out across the empty corridor and found herself counting the tiles that ran along the floor.

She must have been sitting there for some time because soon she could hear the sounds of footfalls. As they began to crescendo, she slowly raised her head when she heard a voice echoing a short distance away.

“Melanie, is that you?”

She turned to where the sound had originated and noticed that Bob and Charlie were coming down the hallway, the two boys laughing and smiling. In Bob’s hands he held a crumpled up suit jacket and a small basket with fruits and chocolates inside.

The boys had gone to visit Charlie’s family after watching a movie, the Bucket family had given him the basket to take back to the children’s home and share with the other kids.

As the teenager sat the basket down, he piled the jacket over the top of it before lowering himself to the ground in order to sit down next to her. Several feet away, Charlie sat on the other side of the hallway and waited for one of them to begin speaking.

“Are you okay?” Bob eventually asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Melanie responded; her words unconvincing. “I just needed to get some fresh air.”

“Fresh air my foot,” Bob remarked. “Mel, you look anything but fine. Where did you that excuse from? Watching reruns of ‘Leave it to Beaver’ maybe?”

Melanie rubbed her face with her hands and tried to smear the tears away. “Then I guess the right wording should be; ‘I’ll be fine’.”

“That answer still sounds a bit like an old sitcom,” Bob remarked as he exchanged concerned glances with Charlie. He turned back around and looked at her. “I know I’m just a kid, but I kept saying that hot air back when my dad was away and you know how well that worked out. I got really mad at people and said a lot of stuff that I didn’t mean and later, I regretted it.”

“We all do that from time to time,” Melanie said bravely as the door to the room that she had exited some moments before had opened and Willy and Maggie appeared in the doorway and were listening to the exchange.

“Yeah, but I was really bad, Mel, I said stuff that hurt you and I know I can’t take any of it back,” he said.

“Regret is the hardest part of life sometimes,” she agreed. “I know about that all too well. Just now I said something that probably did more harm than good and I can’t take back those words either. Maybe everything I’ve been doing has been for all the wrong reasons after all.”

“You mean with Willy’s sister?” Bob asked.

She nodded. “Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but I thought that if I were to find her then maybe I would feel like I was special in some way. I guess I’ve reached the conclusion that no matter what it is I do; I probably won’t discover it anyway because it isn’t even there.”

“That’s not true and you know it,” Bob said softly, “I mean; you came back to help Mum and everyone at the house. You didn’t have to do that; you could have stayed and kept trying to find work, but you didn’t, you came back.”

“Coming back was easier than admitting failure,” she whispered.

“No it’s not,” Bob argued. “I mean; you came back and had to deal with abusive words and regardless of all of that; you tried to be there when we needed you. That’s special isn’t it?”

Melanie shrugged her shoulders noncommittally. “I don’t know if it’s enough.”

“Then maybe you should be listening to how you were talking over Christmas. You didn’t let me or anyone else break your conviction. Why are you allowing something like this to do it now? It doesn’t make any sense. Willy is the nicest guy in the world and he cares about you. How can you think for even an instant that he would base his love on that kind of condition?”

“I don’t now, maybe because conditions have become a template in my life,” she confessed. “When my parents left, I was seven-years-old and the reason they did was based on the conditions they had set. ‘You aren’t good enough’ or ‘you won’t behave’ were the excuses they used to justify their actions. I grew up believing that I had prove myself to everyone, otherwise they would reject me too. How can I believe that conditions aren’t in play here?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t think they are,” Bob said emphatically. “What I can tell you is that Willy Wonka loves you. It’s so obvious, and you’d be completely nuts to turn away from that.”

Melanie could feel the tears streaming down her cheeks upon hearing the teenager’s passionate words. “Maybe that’s what I needed to hear,” she whispered as she got to her feet. “Thanks Bob, I guess before I go back in there, I need to go for a little walk outside and try to clear my head. Sometimes I think that the fairy tale will come to an end and all that will be left for me to do is to pick up the pieces and move on.”

“Or maybe you just accept that part about living happily ever after,” Charlie said softly. “That is how fairy tales end, Melanie. They don’t just end with the good-guy getting a blow to the heart.”

Instead of offering any sort of response, she slowly started to make her way back down the hallway. Once she had rounded a corner, Bob looked at Charlie. “Do you have any idea what we can do now?”

“No, I said the only thing I could think of,” Charlie said. “But, you got to admit, she’s got a lot of hang-ups. I mean; I can’t understand why this is all such a problem for her. Maybe I’m not seeing the big picture and this is probably another grown-up issue.”

“Yes,” Willy spoke, his voice causing the two boys to turn and look at where he and Maggie were now standing. “It is a grown-up issue, Charlie.”

“How much did you overhear?” Bob asked.

“We heard everything,” the chocolatier said softly.

“What can we do?” the boy asked. “I feel like a lot of this is my fault. I mean; I said a lot of stuff that hurt her.”

“You did, Bob,” Maggie said nodding, “but, it’s going to be up to Melanie to get beyond it. You said what needed to be said.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Bob whispered.

“I think that Melanie’s just remembering the words that were said to her. That’s the trouble with words, once they are said, they can’t be unsaid,” Willy said softly. “People have a tendency to remember those words and how much they hurt; even when they try not to.”

Maggie nodded as she went over to her son and rested her hand on his shoulder. “You have to forgive yourself now Bob; that’s the hardest part.”

“I appreciate you both trying to be there for her,” Willy said as he came over to where the boys were seated. “For what it’s worth, Melanie did say that she has forgiven you.”

“Maybe, but forgiving and forgetting are two different things and I’m not sure she will forget that I was an imbecile,” Bob whispered.

“Was, past tense,” Willy noted wisely. “She knows you’re not like that anymore and she knows that your behavior stemmed from your fears about your dad. Try not to be so hard on yourself.” He turned to Charlie. “Why don’t you take Maggie and Bob around for a little while? There’s something I really need to do and since this is Maggie’s first time in the factory, make it something really good.”

“How about I take them to the winter room?” Charlie asked as he got to his feet. When Willy nodded, the teenager continued speaking, this time his words addressing the factory guests. “Come on you guys, I’ll show you the coolest place here; it’s called the Winter Room.”

“No pun intended?” Bob asked. “What can we do in there?”

“Build snowmen out of powdered sugar and go skiing in the sugar cane canyon, it’s awesome,” Charlie said enthusiastically.

Bob got to his feet. “Well, we did miss out on getting to go skiing this year. Maybe this will make up for it, right Mum?”

“That sounds like fun,” Maggie said smiling as she looked at Willy. “I am guessing that you’re going to talk to Melanie?”

Willy nodded but motioned towards the items that Bob had been carrying. “You can just leave the stuff here, Bob, no one will bother it and you can come back for it later.”

Nodding Bob and his mother started to follow Charlie back down the hallway.

Alone, Willy stood and watched until they had disappeared in the distance. Once they were gone, he started to make his way back in the direction of the contract room.

He figured that of all the places Melanie would go, this would be the place. She would probably retrieve her coat and leave. It was the confectioner’s hope that he would get there and stop her before she could leave the factory.

~~~~~

Willy arrived at the contract room and much to his relief, Melanie was still there. She had grabbed her coat and was pulling it on as he came into the room. Wordlessly, he watched as she idly wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Clearly, she was trying to stop the tears from falling only to realize that she could not.

Rather than noticing that he had arrived and was watching her, she sat down on the steps and began to weep bitterly, her face meshing into the folds of her coat.

The chocolatier froze when her broken words emerged. “Oh God, what should I do now?”

Without thinking about what he was doing, he came over to where she was seated and wordlessly sat down beside her. When she still did not acknowledge his presence, he enfolded her in his arms and pulled her against him. As her head came to rest against his chest, he began to rock her lovingly. “Just let it out, Melly, everything’s going to be alright,” he whispered as he rested one hand against one side of her face, his soft fingers rhythmically brushing lightly against it.

Melanie took a gasping breath as she felt his gentle touch. Regardless of that, the tears continued to spill down over her cheeks and she continued to cry in earnest. “It’s so much easier to pretend that everything’s okay,” she wept softly as her arms wrapped around him and she held on for dear life.

“I know, but eventually the games will conclude and all that pretending ends up leading to even more pain and heartache,” he said softly.

“I’m sorry, Willy, I’m so sorry,” she whimpered softly.

“I know,” he said softly. “I overheard you out in the hallway talking to Bob. You said that you said something that you regretted. Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really.”

“It’s not going to go away just because you don’t want to discuss it,” he whispered. “You’ve been holding it in for so long and now it’s coming out at the most unfortunate moment.”

“I know, but what I said…it wasn’t intended, I was only trying to help.”

“I know you were, and I also know that trying to have the answer to every problem is never going to be easy and generally speaking, it’s not even going to be successful.”

“Do you think that is what I was doing?”

“Maybe,” he said gently, “but, do you know what? I think everything is going to be alright, Melly, you’ll see.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I don’t know, maybe I’ve just been listening to you and Maggie for so long that I’ve sort of been coerced into believing that all is well or that all will be well,” he said softly.

“You must really hate me now.”

“No, I don’t, I never did,” he said as he leaned over and captured her chin with both of his hands. As he tipped her face up, he smiled lovingly at her. “If it weren’t for you, I’d still be sitting around feeling sorry for myself and not knowing what to do about finding my sister. Maybe I haven’t said this enough, but you are so very important to me, Melanie Jarvis. Even if you don’t personally bring Wanda back to me, I am still in your debt for all the wonderful things that you have done.”

“I don’t think it’s enough,” she whispered.

“It is enough, it’s more than enough.”

“I just…” her voice broke as the words got caught in her throat.

“…You just want to make sure that a certain confectioner doesn’t face the same traumas and heartaches that you have faced. Is that it?” As he spoke, he brushed his index finger against the tip of her nose.

She nodded weakly. “I guess so.”

“You can’t save me from pain, dear heart, because all of those things are about life and about taking chances and accepting whatever will come. Joy and sorrow are quite often two sides of the same coin, in that you can’t experience one without some semblance of the other,” Willy said as he continued to stroke her face lovingly. “I know that you’ve been let down by your family, but maybe now is the time for you to put them completely behind you.”

“W-what do you mean?” she whispered.

“I think that the best way to go forward is to look back,” he said somewhat mysteriously. “Perhaps after we find Wanda, we should start looking for your parents, or at least try to find out if you have a family that might accept you.”

“But, you already know about my parents,” she whispered.

“Family is more than just parents; it’s siblings, grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. Maybe you have a family beyond just the obvious and it’s time for you to go and find out if there is something for you instead of just the horrid memories of abandonment and conditions. Besides, I believe that there’s that small part of you that wants the satisfaction of showing them that you have accomplished great things in life without them.”

“What great things?” she whispered.

“Well, for starters, you helped me to find Christmas,” he said smiling. “Do you know how hard that is? Not even Charlie could find a way past that particular loophole.”

“Well, that wasn’t so hard. Everything I did, I did because I love you,” she whispered. “You give my life meaning, I couldn’t have done otherwise.”

“Okay, how about this? You gave of yourself so that the children’s home could prosper,” he argued.

“It’s my home; I couldn’t have turned my back on them,” she whispered. “Maggie is like a mother to me.”

“You are really amazing do you know that? You think so little of the impact that you have on others, but it is so massive,” he whispered as he pulled her closer. “I look at you and I see someone very special who embraces others and makes them feel extraordinary. Just look at how you became a big sister to a little girl like Sarah. You didn’t have to provide inspiration to any of the people you encountered, but you did. That is what makes you so exceptional and unique. What you have done is truly empowering. You don’t have to be famous to make a difference; you just have to be yourself.” As he was speaking, Melanie looked down at her lap.

After several moments had passed and she had not yet responded to his words, Willy reached over and brushed his fingertips against her cheek. “You really don’t have to be famous, my darling, you just have to be Melanie Jarvis.”

As these words emerged, she tightened her hold on him. As she continued to weep softly, she could feel that he had done the same. “I was trying to be strong,” she sobbed.

“I know you were, and you were doing it for my sake,” he said gently. “I know that I sometimes get so involved in my own problems that I forget to look at the people I love and see that they are coping with issues as well. This is why I suggested that we look for other members of your family; I thought maybe it might help make you feel better.”

“I do feel better now, just knowing that I haven’t ruined anything with you,” she whispered. “I never intended to push you away, Willy. That was what I’m most afraid of.”

“You didn’t push me away,” he said softly. “You won’t succeed in pushing me away because I won’t ever let that happen. I’ll always try to talk to you first, and then we can resolve everything one step at a time.”

She nodded as she rested her head on his shoulder. “I think your sister is a lot different than my parents. If it turns out that she’s not happy to see you, then I would say she’s insane.”

Willy chuckled from deep within his throat but smiled warmly at her. “You know, Melly, I think Wanda will want to see us both, and she will become a very good friend to you. I can’t imagine her being like those friends of hers who want nothing to do with their delightful nieces and grandnephew.”

“I can’t either,” she said softly. “I guess I was just scared that once you find her you’d forget about me and that would be it. It’s stupid, I know, but it still scared me.”

“Not really, considering how much rejection you have contended with in your life. If truth be known, I do understand how you feel, and why you’re afraid,” he said softly. “But, I promise that won’t ever happen,” he paused for a moment as his next question emerged. “So, do you want to try and find your family? I can help you with that.”

“No, I have you and Maggie, that’s more than enough for me,” she said softly, but raised her head to look around the otherwise empty room. “Where is she anyway?”

“Charlie took her and Bob to the winter room. Why don’t we go there and join them? We can have some cocoa and let them know that everything is fine.”

Melanie nodded. “Winter room sounds cold, do I need this?” She motioned down at the coat she was now wearing.

“No, the winter room only looks like a snowy landscape; in actuality, it’s filled with an abundance of powdered sugar and wintery sweets. You can leave your coat here. If you get cold, then I will take it upon myself to warm you,” he said as the two of them stood up and she took off her coat in order to hang it up. Once she had done that, she rejoined him and the two of them left the room.

As they were walking, Willy took a deep breath. “Are you absolutely certain that you don’t want me to help you find your family?” he smiled gently at her. 

“No, I don’t need them, but if you really want to look for them, I won’t stop you. I should probably warn you that it might get very interesting when it comes out that you are my boyfriend,” she raised her head and nuzzled up against one of his ears.

“Oh, I’m counting on that, my love,” he said sweetly and with an added chuckle, he repeated those words with a sly wink. “I am most definitely counting on that.”


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16: The Right Place at the Right Time**

The following morning, Maggie and Melanie set out on their own to comb Cherry Street and continue their search for Willy’s sister. Because of their extended time in the winter room the day before, the chocolatier opted to remaining back at the factory. His rationale was that he still had work to do and the monthly shipping schedule had not yet been posted.

Maggie and Melanie were both unhappy about his cancelling, but understood his rationale and made plans to set out early the following morning to see if Cherry Street had any helpful and possible leads.

As the two women reached the beginning of the street, Melanie glanced down the length of the thoroughfare. “This is going to be a challenge,” she remarked.

“I’m counting on that,” Maggie said as they reached the first house. “Mark told me yesterday when we spoke that Wanda lived on this street and that she was going by an assumed name. I guess the best thing we can do is check all the post boxes for the flats and see if any of them might have a match to her actual name or the pseudonym.”

“I seriously doubt she will have Wonka blatantly plastered on a mailbox, though,” Melanie remarked.

“She would have to if it was her legal name,” Maggie said. “How can the tax collector contact her otherwise?”

“True, but some of these buildings don’t even have post boxes on them, the postman would have to go inside and deliver the mail through a flap in the door,” Melanie said. “That was how it was when I was living away from London.”

“We’ll just have to do the best we can,” Maggie said softly.

“So, Mark said that the name ‘Smith’ was the one that she was using, right?” Melanie asked.

“Yes, that’s how she introduced herself to Mark when they first met.”

“That’s original,” Melanie mused. “Half the phone book is named ‘Smith’, the other half is ‘Jones’.”

“Too true,” Maggie said grinning. “So shall we get started?”

“Maybe we should split up then we can cover more ground that way,” Melanie suggested.

“That’s actually a good idea. You take that side of the street, I’ll take this side.”

Melanie nodded. “If I find anything, I’ll be sure to come and let you know,” she said as Maggie nodded before starting back in the direction of the first group of houses on the street. Turning around, she watched as Melanie crossed the street and made her way towards a high rise apartment building.

Maggie returned her attention to the first group of names and began to read what was printed there. “Hendrix, Freedman, Johnson…” she whispered the names as the front door abruptly opened and a young man stepped outside and started coming down the walk. When he noticed Maggie studying the names, he stopped and spoke.

“Hello, might I be of some assistance?” he asked.

“I’m not sure if you can, none of these names match the person I’m looking for,” Maggie said.

“Who are you looking for?” he asked.

“A woman named Wanda, but I’m not sure if she goes by Smith or something else. I was told she lives on this street,” Maggie said openly.

“There are several Smiths residing in this neighborhood; most of the ones I know are families with small children,” he said. “If memory serves, I think there’s also a couple who retired some years back and they live at 94, right near where the Wonka candy store used to be.”

“Oh yes that’s right, Willy Wonka started his first business on this street, I completely forgot about that,” Maggie said.

“Most people around here will never forget where he started,” the man said. “The telltale signs are still present even though the shop was converted about five years ago into a pharmacy. One of the signs around the corner from it is still intact and hanging up against the side of the building. The name ‘Wonka’ is still visible. Maybe it’s the notoriety that makes this place seem like a museum piece instead of a building. Of course, everyone knows that Willy Wonka sold the old shop at around the same time he closed the factory and fired all the workers. My uncle actually worked there before he was given the sack.”

“Do the people around here have a favorable impression of Mr. Wonka?” Maggie asked.

“Some do, some don’t; it would depend on who you talk to,” the man said. “He’s viewed by some around here as your typical tycoon; heartless, cold, and unkind.”

“Others don’t view him that way, do they?”

“No, some people actually remember that old candy shop as well as the gentle proprietor who ran it. I remember when I was a kid and I would go in there after school. One day, I came in and had a bloody nose. One of the boys at school had been picking on me and I ended up getting into a fight. Anyway, I showed up at the shop and Mr. Wonka came out from behind the counter and gave me a handkerchief for my nose. He talked to me about handling conflict in a peaceful way. Later, after I got home I ended up telling my dad about what happened and he said that Mr. Wonka had been right. Ever since then, he was always nice to me, but even after all that, I don’t think he’d remember me.”

“He might,” Maggie said.

“I don’t think so. He probably meets so many people that the faces become a kaleidoscope of images and impressions,” he said. “It doesn’t really matter, because the impact he had on me outweighs his ability to remember me anyway. If he hadn’t have sold the building when he did, then maybe the impressions of the neighborhood would be better, but I’m not entirely sure. Sometimes people just have to let the past go and move forward.”

“Do you remember when specifically he sold the building?” Maggie asked.

“I think that was about ten years ago, I was fifteen and considered a bit too old for candy stores. Soon after that; I started to hear the rumors about him and how he had sold the neighborhood out for bigger and better things. I guess I can’t really blame him for leaving and not looking back.”

“No, I guess no one can,” she said with a nod of her head. “It’s rather funny, but I live not far from here on Kinsley Street and I haven’t been to this neighborhood in a very long time.”

The man nodded and smiled, “well, the street itself has changed a lot over the years. We do still have a decent number of small shops, but somehow the passage of time has a way of changing things and sometimes not for the better.”

“How do you mean?”

“Just that people move in and move out. Small businesses are bought and sold like Monopoly pieces. Those of us who choose to stay just sit back and watch the changes as they take place,” he said. “My wife’s family owns a small dry cleaning business down the way there and my older brother lives over there where that lady’s walking.”

Maggie followed the man’s gaze and could see that Melanie was making her way slowly along the opposite side of the street.

“So what you’re saying is that there are a lot of families living here. People grow up and stay in the area. That must be nice,” Maggie said.

“Yeah, it’s become a real community,” he said nodding but he glanced down and checked his watch. “Sorry, I have to be on my way, I have an appointment in ten minutes and I’m running behind the time. Good luck finding the person you’re looking for.”

Maggie nodded. “Thank you.”

Once he had walked away, she started to make her way further along the street.

~~~~~

At the same time Maggie and the man were speaking, Melanie had left one of the high rise apartment buildings and was making her way along the sidewalk. The names were literally swimming in her head, but none of what she had seen looked even remotely familiar. In fact, the first initials that were on the mailboxes did not begin with the letter ‘w’ so clearly Wanda did not reside in that particular building.

Lowering her head she tightened her coat around her body and continued to walk. After some moments, she nearly plowed into someone who was coming in the opposite direction. The woman had to sidestep her so that Melanie would only casually brush past her and not plow right into her.

“Deep in thought?” the woman greeted her as Melanie stopped and turned around.

“Yes, I guess I am,” she said. “Sorry if I came close to making you a casualty.”

“No harm, no foul,” the woman said smiling. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, except my reaction time is clearly not on par with yours.” As Melanie raised her head, her gaze met a pair of kind looking blue eyes.

“My job enhances my reaction time,” the woman said as she ran her gloved hand through her tangled curly hair. When she lowered her head again, she looked at Melanie and offered her a warm smile. “You do look as though you’re a thousand miles away,”

“Maybe I am,” she said. “I guess it’s just feeling like it’s just getting colder and colder. Typical January, no wonder it’s my least favorite month of the year.”

“Mine too, it would be nice to go from Christmas straight into springtime, wouldn’t it?” the woman asked. “I heard on the radio this morning that it’s supposed to get colder tonight and I’m not really keen on that.”

Melanie nodded. “I used to love it when I was little, but anymore winter means two things; cold and colder. I guess I’d rather be at home with a good book than out in the middle of it.”

The woman nodded, “yet, here we both are.”

“Lucky us,” Melanie said sarcastically as Maggie approached where the two of them were now standing. From the opposite side of the street, the house mother had noticed that Melanie had stopped for several moments in order to speak with the other woman.

“Hi,” Maggie said her voice friendly as she looked from Melanie to the woman.

“Good morning,” the woman said as she raised her head and looked at Maggie.

“I know this is going to sound really strange, but you look familiar, have we met?” Maggie asked.

“I don’t think so, I just moved here a few months back,” the woman said. “I don’t know too many people in the neighborhood. I guess my work keeps me pretty busy.”

“I know the feeling,” Maggie said. “What do you do?”

“I’m a grade school teacher actually,” the woman said. “I teach kindergarten.”

“Maggie, maybe you saw her at the school when we were getting some of the kids registered,” Melanie offered.

“No, that’s not where I recognize you from,” Maggie said shaking her head. “I just can’t put my finger on it, but there’s something familiar about you.”

“I get that a lot, actually,” the woman responded.

Melanie took a deep breath. “Well, I think we crossed paths a few days ago. Were you in Hyde Park on New Years at around four in the afternoon?”

“Yes, I might have been,” the woman said.

“I think you were, but it wasn’t your face that was familiar, it was your coat. I think we walked past each other. I didn’t really see your face; I only glanced up in time to say: ‘happy New Year’.”

“That was you, and there was a man with you,” she said. “He looked kind of unhappy; his shoulders were slumped and his head was lowered. I couldn’t see his face at all.”  
“That’s right,” Melanie affirmed. “We were talking about family and he has been sort of dealing with some family issues as of late.”

“I know the feeling,” she said, “this time of year somehow has its way of bringing to light the subject of family; whether it be good or not so good tidings.”

Maggie nodded. “Yes, well, I think we can fully understand that. You see, my name is Maggie Richardson and this is my foster daughter, Melanie Jarvis.”

“You’re her foster daughter?”

“Yes, I am,” Melanie said openly. “Maggie runs the Kinsley Street Children’s Home, which is where I grew up. She’s the closest thing I have to a mum.”

“You’re an orphan?”

“Yeah, but in the ways that really matter, I’ve got family,” Melanie said. “Sometimes family doesn’t come with blood kin, it comes with the heart. Maggie, and her husband and their son are my family, and then there’s my boyfriend, Willy and…”

“…Your boyfriend’s name is Willy? Is he the man you were walking with?” the woman interrupted as her face lost all its color.

“Did I say that?” Melanie asked.

“Yes, you did,” the woman said as she closed her eyes and brushed her hand through her hair. “You said that his name was Willy and…” her voice broke as she moved her hands from her hair to cover her face. “…I’m sorry; apparently I’m just in one of my silly moods again.”

“Maybe there’s nothing silly about any of this, maybe it’s all about being in the right place at the right time,” Maggie said. “If you are who I think you are then I think the three of us need to go somewhere, sit down, and talk.”

“I don’t understand,” the woman responded, her voice laced in hesitancy. “I don’t know either of you.”

“But you do know my boyfriend,” Melanie whispered. “His name is Willy Wonka.”

“Your boyfriend is Willy Wonka?”

Melanie blushed slightly, but nodded. “I’ve never actually admitted that to anyone outside of my family, but yes, he is and he’s been trying to find you. Your name is Wanda, correct?”

“Yes,” she said nodding, “Willy’s my little brother.”

Maggie took a deep breath and with a gentle hand, she rested it on Wanda’s shoulder. “He wants to see you, and given what I see of you right now, you clearly want to see him as well, don’t you?”

“I’m afraid to,” she whispered. “The other day I walked to the factory and I wanted to leave an old letter with him, but I couldn’t. Then after I met this guy at a deli, the letter was gone and after I got home, I tore my purse apart trying to find it.”

“The man you met was Mark Reynolds, he’s my younger brother,” Maggie said. “Willy has the letter and he knows that you cared enough to write to him. The hope that is manifest in that letter is very profound and it gives him the added assurance that you might actually want to see him again,” Maggie said.

“I do want to see him, but I’m afraid to,” she said.

“So is he,” Melanie said. “He thought for the longest time that you didn’t want to have anything to do with him. When birthdays and Christmases pass without a word, a person reaches those kinds of conclusions. Maggie later told him that maybe it was beyond either of your control.”

“Before anything else is said, I really think we need to get inside somewhere and talk,” Maggie said. “This conversation should not be happening outside on the street.”  
Melanie nodded. “The trees have ears?”

“Everything does,” Maggie affirmed.

“Well, my flat is just down the street,” Wanda said.

Melanie glanced skyward. “Maybe we should go there, it looks like we’re about to get another snowstorm.”

Wanda nodded, but instead of responding to either of the two women, she led them down the street until they reached a small block of flats off to one side. “It’s hard to believe that I ran into you both today,” she said after several moments had passed.

“Actually, it was me doing the running,” Melanie said smiling. “If you hadn’t have gracefully dodged me, we’d have been sandwiched.”

Wanda laughed as they reached the door leading inside the rustic building. As Maggie took note of the number as well as the surname on the mailbox, they entered the building and ascended the stairs to a second storey flat.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17: Resolving the Past**

Reaching the door; Wanda pulled out a set of keys while Melanie and Maggie waited for her to open the door and usher them inside. Once the three women entered the small flat, the door was quickly closed behind them.

Maggie began to unbutton her coat as Melanie looked around the cozy flat.

“I can put on some tea if you’d like,” Wanda offered as Melanie began to unbutton her coat. “Right now I think something hot would do us all some good.”

Maggie nodded as she went over to a small kitchen table and sat down. “That sounds great. I must be honest, I am rather taken aback that we were actually able to find you as quickly as we did. Cherry Street is a very long street and we thought we would be walking it for days.”

“Sometimes things just happen that way,” Wanda said softly. “I’m surprised that Willy isn’t angry with me about what happened.”

“That’s not his way,” Melanie said as Maggie shook her head.

“Willy understands what happened, and he knew that his notoriety would not benefit either of you. This is why he wanted to find you without utilizing the assistance organizations that I’m affiliated with.”

“There’s such a thing?” Wanda asked.

“Yes there is,” Maggie said. “I’ve helped many kids find their birth parents through it, but this is the first time that we tried this without their help at all.”

“So what you’re saying is that you’ve been trying to find me; for Willy?” Wanda asked as Melanie sat down at the table as well.

“Yes, he’s about as close to being one of my kids as one can get,” Maggie said. “He’s a very good person, Wanda, very compassionate and caring. I think you’d be very proud of him for all the good that he has done. He’s far more than just a famous person.”

“I know and I really wanted to come back sooner, but I was so afraid to,” she confessed. “When all my letters got returned, I kept thinking that maybe it was Willy who was returning them. I was young, naïve, and stupid, but it was a lot easier for me to blame my little brother than it was to acknowledge the fact that my father wanted nothing to do with me.”

Melanie took a deep breath and lowered her head. “That’s what my parents did, too, but I didn’t have a sister or a brother to lean on, I just had me and I was only seven-years-old.”

Wanda looked at Maggie as though seeking confirmation for what Melanie had just said. When the older woman nodded, she took a deep breath. “I’m so sorry, I am so deeply sorry.”

“It’s not your fault, you didn’t do anything, I’m just saying that’s what happened,” Melanie whispered. “At least now I think I know why I wanted to help Willy find you; I wanted to let you both know that I know how you feel and that I understand how hard it is when a parent rejects their own child. I also know that in everything that has happened, it’s important to have someone to lean on. When I discovered how much pretend I was playing, it was just after Willy came into my life and somehow he made things better for me. Can you imagine, a poor little orphan like me being given a chance like that?”

“You really do love him, don’t you?”

“More than anything,” Melanie said softly. “Sometimes I’m scared that maybe I’m not good enough for him, but then something happens and he tells me that the notion is absurd.”

“He really does that?” Wanda asked as she took a deep breath.

“Yes, he does,” Melanie said.

Maggie looked at Willy’s sister. “Your brother is a sensitive person and sometimes that ends up making him feel hurt or alone, but imagine the fact that he lives in that gigantic factory and he’s all alone. During Christmas, he came and told us a story.”

“What sort of story?”

“He said that there was a man who was all alone at Christmas and he sat in a big building and looked out at the people,” Maggie began. “This lonely man discovered that family was not just in name or status, but that it exists in the heart and when he discovered that, he found the true meaning of Christmas.”

“The children loved the story and they asked Willy to tell it again and again. I think he ended up telling the story at least four or five times,” Melanie said.

“No, it was more like seven or eight,” Maggie said. “He told it over breakfast on the twenty seventh and then yesterday when you were upstairs taking a shower. He told me that he should write it down so that he would not forget it, but then I told him that the children will not likely forget it.”

“I didn’t know he told stories,” Wanda said.

“You don’t know a lot about him, but now you’re going to have the chance to really know what sort of person Willy Wonka is,” Maggie said. “It’s not the famous person sitting high in a factory and looking down at the world, but it’s the kind-hearted and sensitive man that walks with us and that is what is beautiful and magical.”

“So, what do you think I should I do?” Wanda asked. “It seems to me that you both have more answers than I do and I’m pretty much at a loss right now.”

“I don’t know about that,” Maggie said. “I just think that you and he have a lot of catching up to do. Maybe the best way to do this is in neutral territory.”

“What do you mean?” Melanie asked.

“Simple, Willy and Wanda need to see each other in a place that doesn’t give an unfair advantage. It’s easy to do things when you’re at home surrounded by familiar things. It would be that way for both of you in this particular instance. The factory would be too intimidating for you, and this flat, as lovely as it is; might make Willy uncomfortable.”

“I didn’t think about that,” Wanda mused. “So, where do you think would be a good place for this to happen?”

“I think it should be the children’s home,” Melanie suggested. “It’s the most perfect place.”

“No, that wouldn’t be right, either,” Maggie said.

“It wouldn’t, but why not?” Melanie asked.

“Well, the most obvious answer to that is that it’s familiar to Willy. He has spent a good deal of time there and he knows many of the kids, and as you so often noted, Melanie, the ‘walls have ears’,” Maggie said. “I think in this particular instance, the best place for us to meet would be at the Jansen deli. Do you know this place, Wanda?”

“Yes, the family of one of the kids at my school owns it,” she said. “I’ve only been inside once, but it’s a nice place, very intimate and friendly.”

“That sounds perfect,” Maggie said. “What do you think, Melanie?”

“Well, Willy did like the chocolate cake there and he did relax a bit when Tommy started singing ‘Inchworm’,” she said smiling. “He even started singing along with him.”

“That was my favorite song as a child,” Wanda said, “and Willy and I used to harmonize with it. It really shouldn’t surprise me that he knows the song so well and that he could still sing it.”

“Then it looks like we have a place, now we need a date and a time,” Maggie said.

“We could always try to get Willy to go with us to have some cake tomorrow,” Melanie said, “I mean; I know that it’s a regular work day, but everyone needs a break.”

“Is the deli open tomorrow?” Maggie asked.

“I’m not really sure, I think Friday is their day off,” Wanda said. “I remember several weeks back after school let out, I felt like having some apple dumplings and when I got there, they were closed.”

“Then we can probably show up there, I’ll check later on their hours of operation,” Maggie said.

Wanda nodded but looked at Maggie. “I know that this has absolutely nothing to do with my brother, but do you think your brother would be willing to give me another chance?”

“I don’t know; I think he would,” Maggie began, “Mark’s a good guy with a very twisted sense of humor, but I can always put in a good word for you. Maybe, the best idea is for you to ring him again and tell him what you told us. I think he’d understand where you’re coming from.”

“Yeah, but just to be on the safe side, don’t tell him any lawyer jokes and you’ll be fine,” Melanie said. “When he gets going, there’s sometimes nothing stopping him.”

Wanda smiled, “so in other words, he makes you laugh, just as a big brother should.”

“A big brother,” Melanie whispered. “You know, in all the years that I have known him, I never really thought of him that way.”

“Families are like that though and Mark has always looked out for you, even when it drove you crazy,” Maggie said as she looked at Wanda. “Speaking of which, I think now it looks like our family is going to continue to grow.”

Wanda took a deep breath. “That sounds nice. I’ve been on my own for a very long time, probably since I was eighteen. I moved away from home because I couldn’t bear the thought of living my life for the sake of someone else’s dreams or expectations. I had to find my own way, but in doing so, I lost my little brother. During the years that followed, I waited for the moment that I could come back and see him, but I had no idea that our father had abandoned him when he was a teenager. I only found out what happened after I wrote a letter to one of our former neighbors and asked if my father and brother still lived at the old address.”

“So, that was when you found out about what happened to him?” Melanie asked.

“Yes, the neighbor told me that Willy was sent away and our father had left London,” she said softly. “I had no idea where Willy was and I was broke and alone. I had no job to speak of and couldn’t afford to start looking for him. I was having a hard enough time trying to take care of myself.”

“That’s hard,” Maggie said.

Wanda nodded as she looked at Melanie. “I guess in some ways, you can relate to that, huh?”

“Probably in more ways than one,” Melanie said nodding. “Maggie, I think we need to get them together as soon as possible.”

Maggie nodded as Wanda got up and went back into the kitchen in order to pour the tea. Once she came out with two cups, she put them in front of Maggie and Melanie. She returned to the kitchen and retrieved the third cup as well as a small pitcher of milk.

“The sugar bowl is already on the table,” she said as she sat back down and wrapped her hands around the warm tea cup that was in front of her.

As Maggie reached for the pitcher and Melanie spooned herself some sugar, Wanda took a deep breath. “I wish I could say or do something that is going to make all of this easier.”

“Believe me, we’d all like for there to be an easier way to contend with all of this, but there isn’t, it’s just something that has to be done,” Maggie said.

“Maybe there is, actually,” Melanie said. “I mean; I know that this probably goes completely against Maggie’s suggestion about meeting at the deli, but maybe you should just go back to the factory and ring the bell. At least that way you don’t have to wait for places to open or see if there’s enough chocolate cake available. Later you can arrange a meeting at the deli for lunch or take tea there. Right now, you have to see each other. Otherwise, the longer you wait, the more insecure you’ll get and the more willing you’ll be to put it off.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Wanda said softly. “Would you both be willing to come with me to the factory? I mean; you don’t have to stay, but I would feel a lot better if I wasn’t standing at the gate all by myself.”

“I’ll go with you,” Melanie said softly. “Do you want to come along too, Maggie? I mean; Wanda could probably use all the moral support she can get.”

“I think you two can handle this,” Maggie said as she picked up her teacup and took a sip.

~~~~~

An hour later, Wanda and Melanie dropped Maggie off at the children’s home, before making their way along the road in the direction of the factory. It was at that moment when Melanie remembered that she had the key to get them inside. Now, instead of fishing it out from the depths of her pocket, she left it where it was.

“Do you think that he will be angry with me?” Wanda asked weakly.

“No, I think he’ll be happy to see you,” Melanie said. “Besides, if he wants to find you and I know he does, then anger will be the furthest thing from his mind.”

Wanda gripped tightly to Melanie’s arm. “I really do appreciate you coming with me. I mean; I know we’re practically strangers, but you seem to understand me in ways that no one else can.”

“Maggie understands.”

“Yeah, but Maggie’s like a mum, not really like a sister and I mean; you and Willy are an item and that means that we’re sort of like sisters now,” Wanda said. “Does that make any sense?”

Melanie nodded. “It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t; it’s sort of what I’ve always wanted.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it’s sort of embarrassing to admit it, but I’ve always wanted to have someone like a sister I could talk to. I mean; don’t get me wrong I do have Maggie, but it’s like you said, she’s like a mum and not someone who can relate to the things we’ve experienced. The thing is, when I was a kid, I was sort of an oddball so I never really had the chance to establish close bonds with the other girls at the home. They all seemed to like fashion and make-up magazines and I was into football; so much so that I wanted to play professionally. Not in the women’s league, but with the guys. I wasn’t scared of scraped knees or no prom dates; I just wanted to be one of the boys. Today, I sort of look back on that and I wish that I had done the things that other girls did.”

“Why?” Wanda asked.

“I don’t know, I just do,” she said.

“All that stuff about being normal is overrated,” Wanda said. “That’s something that I learned after I left home. You have to live with yourself, and you have to accept who you are. It doesn’t matter what your hobbies happen to be, it just matters that you have something up here.” She pointed to her temple.

“I’d like to think I do but it’s still not easy sometimes. I look at those old pictures and I think I was such a ragamuffin and then I consider how I am now, and I honestly can’t believe it.”

“When I was younger I didn’t care about my looks,” Wanda said. “People used to say that I looked like relativity gone wrong. My hair was worse than it is now, which isn’t saying much, and I guess I always thought more about what was in my head than what was on it.”

“That makes sense,” Melanie said as they reached the front gate to the factory. “Well, here we are.”

“Yes, and as weird as it sounds, I have no idea what I’m supposed to do now,” Wanda said softly.

“I think all we can do is just ring the bell and wait,” Melanie said with an encouraging smile.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18: Measuring the Marigolds**

At the same time Melanie and Wanda had left Maggie at the children’s home, Willy was rummaging around his desk looking to complete his shipment schedule. As he worked, he sighed. He had wanted to join Maggie and Melanie on their trek to Cherry Street, but instead of telling them that he was fearful about what they would discover, he opted to spewing some concocted business rationale for remaining holed up at the factory.

Charlie had been more than enthusiastic about helping him with the organizational work, but the teenager had ultimately left the office in the hopes of going back to his family’s rooms to have lunch.

Now Willy sat alone, all the while determined to finish the paperwork before going and seeing about grabbing something to eat.

As he worked, his mind drifted lackadaisically. All morning long, he had pondered whether or not his friends would actually be able to locate his sister. Mark had said something about her wanting to go on holiday, so he figured that the chances of Wanda still being in London seemed remote. He thought about calling Mark and asking for more information about his encounter with Wanda only to dismiss that notion because it was a weekday and like Willy, Maggie’s brother was probably doing the same kinds of deskwork that he was subjected to.

Instead of completing the task at hand, Willy’s mind was everywhere instead of where it should have been. He thought about packing everything away and leaving for Cherry Street once he had completed the delivery schedules, but concluded that the idea would probably reap nothing more than sore feet and bitterly cold fingers.

Taking a deep breath, he released it in the form of a sigh but continued to work. After about half an hour had passed, one of his out of breath workers stormed into the office, the door practically flying off its hinges. This was unusual as the Oompa Loompas were generally very quiet and unobtrusive.

Willy raised his head and turned around to see Hine-Jonas standing in front of the half opened door, his white gloved hand resting against his chest. When the worker’s gasping breaths ceased, the confectioner spoke. “This must be very important for you to complete the ten minute mile in eight minutes,” he remarked as the Oompa Loompa regarded him with a puzzled expression on his face.

“I don’t understand, Mr. Wonka.”

“I’m just using a fancy terminology to ask you why you’re in such a hurry.”

“Well, you informed us that we should notify you if the tall lady with the curls returns to your door. That is why I am here, to inform you that she has returned and is waiting outside the front gate with your lady friend, Miss Jarvis.”

“She’s here,” Willy spoke, his voice cracking, “with Melanie?”

“Yes, they have been outside for several moments. I do not know why it is that they did not just come inside; your lady friend does have a key, correct?”

“Yes, she does,” he said softly. Remembering what Maggie had said the day before, he quickly got to his feet and grabbed his purple coat from off the rack. As he threw it on, he ran his hands down the front of his outfit. “Do I look alright?”

“What do you mean?”

“I just mean do I look presentable?”

“I think you look alright,” the Oompa Loompa said. “Now, might I suggest that you get yourself outside or you might risk missing out on seeing your sister?”

Willy finished fumbling with his jacket before going over and grabbing his top hat from off the stand. As he was retrieving his cane, he looked at the worker. “I am so nervous.”

“I understand,” Hine-Jonas said softly, “but sometimes the most empowering moments are the most nerve-wracking ones.”

“Where did you hear that from?” Willy asked.

“Perhaps from you,” the worker responded before taking his leave.

Without saying anything in response, Willy simply nodded as he raced down the hall and into the contract room. There, he pulled on his overcoat, all the while checking the pockets in order to ascertain that his main key was still inside.

He wound his way through the corridor until he reached the door leading outside. As he pulled open the door, he realized that his hands were sweating profusely and his heartbeat was racing. _Please God, let them still be outside,_ he was thinking as he stepped outside.

When he felt the chilliness of the air blowing against him, he glanced over towards the gate and could see that the two women were still standing outside the gate. Melanie was off to one side, her hands inside her coat pocket and Wanda was directly in front of the gate. Instead of staring at the goings on in the courtyard, she was staring down at her hands, which were wrapped casually around the bars that extended along the gate.

Taking a deep breath, Willy dug in the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a set of keys while at the same walking slowly towards the gate. When he reached it, he stopped and his gaze was now resting on the sister he had not seen in over twenty years. “Wanda, is that you?”

~~~~~

Upon hearing her brother’s soft utterance, Wanda Wonka raised her head to see that he was now standing in front of the gate and was looking at her. “Willy?” she whispered his name. As he nodded, he managed to find the key he needed to unlock the gate, but his hands were shaking to such an extent that he was unable to actually stick the key in the lock. Eventually, Melanie stepped forward and using her own key, she managed to unlock the gate and watched as it swung open.

Once Wanda had managed to get around the heavy metal barricade, she suddenly felt herself engulfed in her brother’s loving arms. “Willy,” she whispered his name a second time, her voice cracking with emotion as the tears stung her eyes. “Oh Willy, I should have come sooner,” she whispered as her face pressed against her brother’s chest and her arms wrapped around him.

“You came at just the right moment,” Willy whispered, his voice cracking. “You’re here now and that’s all that matters.”

“I should have come back after I found out what our father did to you,” she whispered. “I just don’t know what happened or where the time went, I mean; I know we were kids back then but…” her voice trailed.

“…We grew up,” he finished for her. “That’s what happened to us, Wanda. We both became adults and had to contend with our lives and what it meant to all grown up. We’ve changed and although it may seem hard to believe we aren’t the same people we once were.”

“Maybe,” she affirmed, “But, there were so many things that happened to us, so much that we still need to talk about.”

“There will be time for that,” he said. “Perhaps it is a bit weak of me to say this, but even if we sat down and had a serious conversation about what happened, I wouldn’t be able to.”

“You wouldn’t?”

“No, right now I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed,” he said.

“You’re overwhelmed, what about me?” she asked softly. “I mean; only this morning I was walking around Cherry Street wanting to do some shopping and then I practically slammed into Melanie.”

“No, that’s not exactly what happened,” Melanie said smiling. “I was so deep in thought I almost plowed into you.”

“Whatever the case, we began to talk and then suddenly it was like we had all become long lost friends,” Wanda said. “If I hadn’t have met her and Maggie, who knows how long it would have taken me to gun up the courage to come back here.”

Willy nodded. “Yes, well, Melanie and Maggie do have a tendency to leave that sort of impression on people. They did the same with me after only a couple of days.”

“Well, with me it’s only been a couple of hours,” Wanda said weakly. “I can’t believe any of this. I mean; don’t get me wrong, I’m quite grateful for everything that’s happened, but I don’t think I would have found the courage without their encouragement.” She stopped for several moments as she tried to collect her thoughts. When she finally did, the words came out in a rush. “Oh Willy it was my fault. I had no way of knowing what would happen with you and our father.”

“How could either of us have known?” Willy asked softly as he motioned for the two of them to come into the courtyard. “It’s cold, let’s go inside.”

Wanda looked at him and then at Melanie. “Are you sure?”

“I’m positive,” he said smiling impishly. “Oh come on, I promise not to overwhelm you too much. Besides, as a little brother, it is my obligation to do whatever I can to impress my big sister.”

Wanda looked at Melanie, who offered an encouraging smile.

“Well I think it would be a good idea,” Melanie offered. “If we stay out here much longer we’ll either turn into popsicles or Willy will end up having to give a press conference.”

“I was afraid that you’d be angry with me.”

Willy shook his head as he locked the gate and started to lead them back to the door leading inside. Once they were safely inside, he turned around and looked at his sister, his gaze laced in earnestness. “No, I never blamed you and I most certainly did not believe that any of this could possibly have been your fault; it just happened. I was twelve-years-old and I didn’t understand everything back then, but I do understand it now.” He reached for her hand and when he held it, he gave it a comforting squeeze. “Right now, you need to know how things really turned out and why I don’t blame you. I never did, but I also think that in time, all of these issues will be discussed.”

“But that’s just it, I was supposed to be the adult,” she whispered.

“Legally you were an adult, but you were only eighteen. How can you possibly think that you were supposed to have all the answers at that age?” he asked. “It’s impossible. Eighteen-year-olds are legally adults, but they are not always capable of fully rational thought. Back then, I figured that anyone who was older than sixteen was considered to be ‘over the hill’, but that was illogical. By all practical accounts, we were both children at heart and were not ready to contend with the world as adults. You were only eighteen and I was just a pesky little kid.”

“But, you weren’t a pesky little kid, you were my brother.” she objected as they reached his office and he opened the door. Once they came inside, he closed the door and turned and looked at her, his expression laced in earnestness.

“I’m still your brother,” he said softly. “There was a lot that you didn’t know about me, just as there was a lot I didn’t know about you. I wasn’t certain of things back then, but I did know what you taught me.”

“What did I teach you?”

“Many things, like allowing my inspiration to guide me instead of doing what other people wanted or expected. Soon after you left, I remember tasting candy for the first time and wanting to find out more about how to make it. Father could not change that, Wanda, and yes, he did try. Perhaps that was the reason why I ended up at an orphanage in the first place. When I discovered the opportunity to explore the things I loved, the world suddenly wasn’t a dark and dismal place anymore. Several years later, I was introduced to a man who was a hobby candy maker. In turn, he introduced me to a friend of his who worked on the groups of machines that I had seen at the local museum during one of my school outings. Now, if you had told me that I would be doing this as a business venture after I left the foster care system, I would have figured that you were crazy.”

“Is that really how you got started in the business?” Melanie asked as she went over and sat down on the sofa that was along one of the walls.

Willy nodded. “In a way, yes, but I have to admit that what I learned from him was not so much about making candy, it was about digging deep inside oneself and unlocking that thing called determination. The extent of that man’s candy making endeavors equated to something straight out of a chemistry set. He knew the ins and outs of that, but when it came to inventing new things, he had no idea about embarking on a venture into the unknown.” He smiled impishly as his continued speaking. “When I came across the shop on Cherry Street, I had to borrow money to start the business, but I had no idea about how to go about making it successful. I had to find a way to make it work regardless of the words and ideals of those who spoke against it. In hindsight, it was a way to pave out a life for myself.”

“A life is not all you made,” Wanda said softly. “From what I understand, you created a wonderland.”

“Perhaps, but what is a wonderland if I don’t have anyone to share it with?” he asked softly. “Over Christmas, I discovered just how alone I was and when I met my friends at the children’s home, I became a part of a family. That’s where the magic resonates.”

“Maybe, but I don’t even have to see what lies beyond this office to know that you created something that is pure magic,” Wanda said. “I always knew that you were destined for great things.”

“I don’t know about that,” Willy mused.

“It’s true, everything I have ever heard about you was encased in magic,” Wanda said. “The magic is in you and it’s enabled you to create something positively miraculous.”

“Magic,” Willy mused as he looked at Melanie. “That’s what you called it too.”

“It is magic, but do you know what?” Wanda affirmed.

“There’s more to life than just weaving magic,” Melanie whispered. “There’s that feeling of belonging somewhere and there’s…love.”

Willy nodded as he went over to where his sister was standing. “You’re my sister, I love you, and I don’t want us to ever be separated again.”

Wanda took a deep breath as she felt her brother’s arms once again winding around her. As this happened, the tears continued to stream from beneath her eyes.

As Melanie watched the tearful reunion between sister and brother unfolding, she decided that it was now time for her to go and leave them alone. As she was getting up to leave the room, both Willy and Wanda released one another at the exact same moment and moved with the intention of blocking her exit.

Within moments, Melanie felt herself being drawn into both of their arms, the emotions literally engulfing her as she felt the unspoken affirmation of both Willy and Wanda Wonka telling her that she belonged with them.

As the tears began to stream from beneath her eyes, Melanie realized that she no longer had to do anything to attain their approval; she already had it.


	19. Chapter 19

**Epilogue: Endings and Beginnings**

As Maggie came inside the children’s home that afternoon, she was smiling. As she came up the walk, she could see her son sitting on the front step, the cold winter wind wafting through his hair. “Hey Mum.”

“Bob, you’re not going to believe what just happened?” Maggie said smiling.

“You found Willy’s sister,” he said matter-of-factly.

“Yes, but how did you know?” she asked.

“I figured because you’re smiling like you’re the cat that ate the canary,” he said. “So, tell me all about it. What happened?”

“Melanie and I ran into her on Cherry Street about two and a half hours ago. Melanie went to the factory with her and I came home,” Maggie said.

“Why did you do that?” Bob wanted to know. “This would have been the reunion of the century.”

“Maybe so, but I think Melanie needed this as much as Wanda and Willy did,” she said.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, sometimes credit isn’t as important as feeling needed. After what happened at the factory yesterday, Melanie was crying out and wanted to know that she’s important and that her presence mattered. I think her being there for Willy and Wanda was all the proof that she needed. Sometimes there’s more to things than just saying them but it’s also about the actions that go along with it.”

“Like when Dad and I cleaned out the cellar the other day?” he asked.

“Yes, you and he worked as a team and that shows that what he told you on Christmas was the truth. It was a moment when the two of you could bring something to a happy conclusion,” she said.

“Mum, I know that I made a lot of mistakes, but I’m really grateful that you didn’t do to me what Willy’s father did to him,” Bob said.

“Now I have to ask again, how did you know about all of that?”

“Willy told me a little bit about his family background, but the rest I heard from Charlie,” Bob said.

“That’s really wonderful that you have become friends with both Willy and Charlie,” Maggie said. “I can tell that you have become quite fond of Willy in the short time that you’ve known him.”

“Yeah, he’s like a second uncle,” Bob said. “He’s probably the only one who can handle Uncle Mark and his endless array of lawyer jokes.”

“Yes, well, now it would seem that I should probably go inside and call Mark. It just so happens that I have a little bit of information about a certain lady who happens to have taken a wee bit of interest in him. Can you believe it? Willy’s sister is interested in that brother of mine.”

“Well, that’s keeping things in the family, isn’t it?” Bob smirked.

Maggie nodded. “Bob, how would you like to come with me to the deli tomorrow for lunch?”

“That’d be cool, Mum, we haven’t done anything together in like, forever,” he said.

“I know, and maybe it’s high time that we do some stuff together so you won’t feel left out anymore.”

“That’d really be great, but what about the kids? We can’t let them go hungry. Especially Jon, he could eat an entire gingerbread house in one sitting.”

“Well, I figure that while you and I are out, your father can get lunch for the kids and spend some time with them,” she said.

“You mean; Dad gets to order some pizzas for the kids,” Bob said. “That’s generally the menu when Dad has to take on kitchen duties.”

Maggie nodded. “Yes, I suppose it is, but I think that this will be a really nice New Year’s tradition for us. Tomorrow, you can finally meet Willy’s sister.”

“That sounds great,” he said smiling. “You know, for the first time in a really long time, I think this year is going to be amazing.”

“I think so too,” she said smiling as she embraced her son.

“Do you know what the best part of the whole thing is for me?” Bob asked.

“What?”

“I still have a factory tour to look forward to,” Bob said smiling. He pulled the golden piece of paper from his pocket and showed it to his mother. “I’ve got a golden ticket!” he said in a sing-song voice. 

Maggie smiled. “Indeed you do.”

~~~~~

The following day, Maggie and Bob set out from the children’s home at around the same time Melanie and Willy had left the factory. They had all agreed to meet at the Jansen deli for lunch and were happy about the prospect of surprising Laura, Jess, and little Tommy. Willy and Melanie were the first to arrive; both of them were smiling brightly as they came inside and were greeted by Laura.

“Hello,” she greeted them with a bright smile. “I can’t stay very long, I’m due back at work in about an hour, but I’m so happy to see you again, Mr. Wonka. You look so much happier now than you were a few days ago.”

“Yes, I am quite a bit happier now, but please call me ‘Willy’,” he said as the door opened and Wanda came inside.

“Am I late?” she asked as she breezed inside.

“Not for lunch,” Laura said, but looked first at Willy and then at Wanda. “Oh my God, this is amazing. You actually found each other. How did that happen?”

“They just happened to be in the right place at the right time,” Melanie said smiling. “It’s sometimes hard to believe but things do have strange and wonderful ways of working out.”

Willy nodded. “You must know that you, your sister, and nephew helped in such a profound way. This is why we wanted to come back here today; we wanted to thank you for helping us.”

“I don’t know how I did,” she said. “I mean; my aunt and uncle aren’t interested in seeing us and that was your only lead.”

“Your aunt and uncle are Rose and Leonard Jensen?” Wanda asked. “I had no idea.”

“Well, it’s no great loss, they stopped talking to us several years ago after there was a misunderstanding in the family,” Laura said. “I don’t really know the specifics, but my sister, Jess and I have no contact with them at all.” She looked at Wanda. “You know what’s really strange about all of this? You’re Mr. Won…I mean, Willy’s sister, but you’re also my nephew’s favorite teacher.”

Wanda smiled. “I am?”

“Yes,” Laura nodded. “If not for that song, none of us would have discovered the truth. We all thought that the only way you could see each other would be for Willy to show up at the school.”

Wanda shook her head in disbelief. “This really is an unbelievable group of coincidences.” She turned around and looked at her brother. “You actually contacted this family because of a supposition that they might be the same family as the one I had run off with when I was eighteen.”

That’s only partly true,” Melanie said smiling. “Most of the pressure came from Maggie and me. He was worried about disrupting Laura’s day, but we sort of pushed the issue because we didn’t want to see another family torn apart.”

“That really is amazing,” Laura said smiling. “Everything just worked out for the best, then.”

As soon as the words had escaped from between her lips, Maggie and Bob entered the deli. “Hi, are we late?” she asked when she saw that Melanie, Willy, and Wanda were already there. Instead of receiving any sort of verbal response, the people assembled began to laugh heartedly. Maggie shrugged her shoulders before turning and looking at her son with a big grin on her face. “Well, it’s generally what I ask when I’m the last person to arrive at a party.”

“Well, that’s cool, Mum, but we’re not the last people to arrive,” Bob said with a casual smirk on his face. As if on cue, the door suddenly swung open again and Mark Reynolds sauntered in. “He’s the last person to arrive.”

“You called Mark?” Maggie asked.

“Yeah, he said to let him know if something came up, and something definitely came up.” As Bob was speaking, Mark came over and clapped him on the shoulder.

“Thanks, Bob,” he whispered as he walked over to Wanda. “Can we start over?”

Wanda Wonka nodded. “My name is Wanda Wonka, and this is my little brother, Willy.”

Mark nodded, “My name is Mark Reynolds and this is my big sister, Maggie.”

Melanie stood and silently watched as the introductions literally flew around the room. Instead of speaking, she watched as Mark extended his hand to Wanda and she accepted.

Moments later, Willy came over to where she was standing and joined her. As he did this, he gently wrapped his arm around her, “Happy New Year, Melly.”

Melanie Jarvis smiled and nodded, but returned the gesture. Moments later, the group went over to a table and seated themselves around it.

Laura brought sandwiches and drinks over and they all sat together and shared in the bounty.


End file.
